The Winds of Change
by Infernal Maelstrom
Summary: Hero and tyrant. Slave and God. He has been all this and more. Where he walks, the winds of change blow. This is the legend of Uzumaki Naruto, the man who took the world by storm and remade it in his image.
1. Chapter 1 The Opening

**Winds of Change Chapter One- The Opening**

* * *

**A/N: And so I begin a new fanfic today. For fans of mine that followed me over from ANL, I welcome you on this new journey of mine. Before I begin though, there are several things that I wish to establish first.**

**Firstly, you'll note that this fic has been categorised as dark, while I did not bother doing so for ANL. Readers from ANL should know what that means.**

**Secondly, unlike with ANL, I can make no promise this time that I will be able to finish the fic. What I can promise though, is that I will inform my readers if I plan to discontinue the fic and will not leave you hanging so please do not bombard me with PMs regarding updates even if it has been a long time since I updated. On a good day, I will ignore these. On a bad day, well, you do not wish to see me on a bad day. **

**Thirdly, I will be retconning the canon events and timeline as and when I feel like it. The changes should not be too major but even so, I do not want any reviews screaming at me telling me that something I did was not canon. I will scream back at you and delete the review.**

**Fourthly, I might or might not be starting up some side projects in the future so keep an eye out for them!**

**Finally, get on to the fic and I hope that you enjoy it.**

* * *

_Fuujin Kiri. He is easily the most prominent figure in recent history but where did his legend begin? Many historians claim it to be his international debut at the Ichimon Island underground tournament. Others believe it to be the day he stumbled upon the sleeping village of Tosai. The truth is actually much simpler, and much further back than these events. It all began with a wrong turn in an alley._

_-Unknown, Chronicles of a Legend, Year 214 AS, Foreword_

* * *

"Little wind, little wind, run around!"

"Middle wind, middle wind, get those who don't want to be found!"

"Heavy wind, heavy wind, turn it all around!"

Naruto hummed along with the children playing in the park a distance away while he sat on a huge metallic box situated at the mouth of an alley. He knew the rhyme by heart now and even all the rules that the children had created from the numerous times he had watched them play.

There would be one child who would be chosen to be the wind right at the start of the game. When the children chanted out the first line, the wind would then chase after all the kids until he had touched another playmate and 'tagged' the playmate. The tagged child would then stand still until the next part of the game.

When roughly half of the children playing had been tagged, the wind would then chant the second line, after which all of the tagged children would hold hands and chase after the untagged children. When there was only one left, all of them would chant out the last sentence and after the last child had been tagged, the game would start anew with the last one to be tagged as the wind.

Of course, children being children, they would sometimes create rules on the spot or change the rules as when they liked it and Naruto knew all of those rules too. But then again, even if he did know all the rules, there was no point when he would never be able to join their games, right?

The blond child sighed dejectedly as he rocked back and forth, drumming his feet on the metallic box that he was sitting on. As he rocked though, his shirt got caught on a small spike and the sound of tearing cloth could be heard distinctly.

Naruto groaned as he looked at the new hole in his shirt. It was big, too big to go unnoticed by the matron at the orphanage and that meant she would force him to wear a new shirt. He hated wearing new shirts. They were always so stiff and itchy and made him sweat a lot when the weather was hot. He had finally worn his current shirt until the cloth was smooth, thin, and generally very comfortable and now he had gone and ruined it.

Not wanting to dwell on the state of his shirt, Naruto decided to turn his attention to the streets instead, where families walked hand in hand, chatting happily with each other. He didn't know why he did this every day. Every time he looked at a happy family, his chest hurt so much and his eyes would sting as he wished desperately to be able to have a family like that as well. But his wishes never came through no matter how many shooting stars he wished upon. It hurt. It hurt so much but he continued watching anyway.

"Mummy! Mummy! Why is that boy sitting there alone?" a small little boy roughly Naruto's age asked as he tugged on his mother's hand with one hand while he pointed at Naruto with the other.

His mother turned her head and opened her mouth to answer before she saw whom exactly her son was talking about. Her eyes visibly hardened and her mouth tightened before she looked down at her son.

"What are you talking about, dear? There is no one there."

Naruto's heart panged upon those words. It never changed. People always treated as though he was invisible. Many times, he had wondered if he was actually and not just a ghost but the matron and that old man with the funny hat had always convinced him otherwise.

"Mummy! He's right over there, on that metal box!" the boy insisted as he tugged on his mother's hand with more force.

"Yamada Gin! I see nothing over there and you had better stop lying before I tell Daddy when we get home and we'll take your ice-cream away!"

Unwilling to risk losing his ice-cream over a boy that he did not even know, the newly identified Gin simply shut up and continued to walk away with his mother.

All of the other children that Naruto met had been like this. They would try to make friends with Naruto until their parents scolded them and they got the message that they were supposed to ignore him if they wanted to be able to continue to go to the playground. Children are inherently selfish and unintentionally cruel creatures. Their own needs are always placed before concern for others. The information spread around and soon, the children were imitating their parents in their behaviour towards Naruto; ignore him and hope he goes away by himself.

Naruto had been lost in his thoughts when something collided against the metal box that he was sitting on, startling him so much that he almost fell off his precarious perch.

What in the world had happened?

* * *

Kishi and Moto were your average teenage bullies. They swaggered around Konoha as if they owned it, spoke obnoxiously and rudely to everyone they met, and fled with their tails between their legs whenever they saw the headband that denoted a shinobi.

In other words, they pushed the weak around and avoided people that they knew to be stronger than them like the plague. It was thus no surprise that much of their daily activities consisted of tormenting small, helpless animals or bullying orphans. They would have gone after all children instead of just orphans if not for the fact that they lived in a ninja village. All too often, one of the kids that they might decide to bully would be the child of a shinobi, or the child of a parent who knew a shinobi. Either way, the result was the same. Kishi and Moto would be strung by their balls on a lamppost as an example to all future bullies. They were not smart, but they were not dumb or suicidal either.

This one day, however, the two bullies were not engaged in their usual activity. The animals had caught a whiff of their scent and fled so fast that the duo could not even hope to catch their shadows. The orphans that they normally pushed around were nowhere in sight either, leaving them with nothing to do.

As such, the duo wandered down the streets of Konoha, generally making a nuisance of themselves while they tried to think of a way to entertain themselves when Kishi caught sight of something that sparked an idea in his head. Nudging his partner in crime, he pointed a small blond child sitting on top of a mailbox.

"Hey, what about that kid?" Kishi whispered.

Conditioned for years to simply ignore Naruto, Moto's eyes slid over Naruto, not even registering his presence.

"What kid? I don't see anything." Moto replied, confusion and exasperation evident in his tone. If this was a prank by Kishi, he swore he would alert the girls in the hot spring the next Kishi peeked on them and let him get beat up.

"_That_ kid, the one sitting on the mailbox. You know, the one that we're supposed to ignore?"

Now that Moto knew what he was looking for, he spotted the kid easily enough. Even so, years of conditioned reflex were hard to ignore and he felt uneasy about going after the kid. After all, _nobody_ even looked at the kid. He voiced his thoughts to Kishi, who simply grinned and clapped on the back.

"That's the whole point of it! Nobody looks and nobody cares, so we can just do whatever and they won't even think about stopping us! Come on, it'll be fun!"

To emphasise his point, Kishi kicked a rock at the mailbox that the kid was sitting on, the reaction of the village pariah making him chortle. Moto had to admit, the kid's reaction _was_ pretty funny. So, he joined Kishi in marching towards the kid, making himself look as menacing and terrifying to a kid as possible.

* * *

Naruto looked up to see two older boys walking towards him. Concluding that they were the ones that had probably kicked the rock to make that loud sound and deciding that he _really_ didn't like the looks on their faces, Naruto quickly hopped off the metal box and scurried into the alley behind him.

He had seen bullies before and he knew that he didn't want to be bullied. It looked decidedly horrible to him. He also knew that bullies got bored easily if their prey managed to escape for a long enough time, which was why he had chosen to run into the alleys. After all, he had explored the alleyways so many times, imagining that he was exploring one of the mazes that was in the bedtime stories that the matron told to the orphans, that he knew them better than he knew the back of his hands.

Hmm. That actually didn't sound very convincing. After all, he didn't know the back of his hands that well. Who actually paid attention to that part of their body anyway? Why did anyone even create that phrase? It really didn't make sense to him. Adults, he decided were dumb. Like those two idiots chasing after him. Speaking of the bullies, they should have given up by now, which meant that he could move to a different watching area.

To his surprise though, they were still chasing after him. Naruto decided to pick up speed and actually start running instead of the trot that he had been going at. This only caused the bullies to pick up speed as well.

Terror filled Naruto's heart and soon he was speeding through the alleys, toppling convenient boxes to try and obstruct the bullies but they easily jumped over the boxes and continued chasing him, letting out whoops and cackles in the meantime.

Naruto soon reached a T-junction, where the left turn would lead him down a path to the orphanage and thus safety. In another life, he would have run down the left path and escaped the bullies. He would lived a tough life filled with trials and tribulations, but eventually obtained his happy ending, his name resounding through the Elemental Countries.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

Just as Naruto started to turn to the left, there was the sound of multiple objects crashing and falling to the ground. Fearing that it was another bully headed his way, Naruto instead turned on his heels and sprinted down the right path, weaving through the passages in desperation.

Kishi could not help the wide and slightly insane grin when the stupid kid turned to the right. The path was one of several paths that would lead to the fence surrounding That Forest, otherwise known to the shinobi as Training Ground 47, the Forest of Death.

Signalling for Moto to continue chasing the kid down the main path and not let him deviate from it, Kishi took a shortcut, hoping to reach the fence before the kid arrived there. This would be so much fun!

The left path that Naruto would have taken was eerily silent, with nary a soul in sight. The alleyway seemed to unnaturally dark even though it was six in the evening. From amongst the collapsed boxes a black cat emerged, revealing it to the cause of the loud sound that Naruto had heard.

Its eyes glinted with an alien intelligence as it padded forward, checking to make sure that no one had entered the alley. Once it had confirmed that, the cat's mouth widened into an unnatural, sinister grin as it walked into a pool of shadow. It then started to sink into the shadows, it's alien eyes and malevolent grin being the last to vanish, leaving the collapsed boxes the only evidence of the black cat's presence.

* * *

Hearing a loud commotion from the alleyway below him, ANBU Agent Owl paused in his patrol as he took in the situation before he pressed on his earpiece.

"Owl to Squad Commander."

"Send."

"Disturbance noted in between checkpoint 5 and 6. It seems like a few bullies are chasing a kid, presumably the Uzumaki kid."

"Noted. Will inform the Uchiha Military Police. Continue your patrol."

"Roger."

Owl hated patrolling but more than that, he hated to leave the kid alone when he was in a position to help but ultimately, the squad commander had made the right call. After all, the village was in high security now and the safety of the entire village far outweighed the distress of one kid.

Hoshigaki Kisame had done the impossible by assassinating the Daimyo of Mizu no Kuni, and escaping successfully. As a result, the Hokage was now travelling towards a meeting with all the other Kages and the new Daimyo to hash out treaties or something like that.

Owl didn't really care about politics. He was a soldier, not a diplomat. He would leave that to those more qualified.

The key point though, was that the Hokage had left the village along with the top ANBU and Jounin the village as his bodyguards, leaving the village extremely exposed and vulnerable, which was why the ANBU in Threatcon Charlie-enhanced, the highest state of alert that the village could be in without being in outright war. Owl was but one of the many ANBU out this evening prowling through Konoha and searching for any threats.

Putting the incident of the blond child behind him, Owl continued jumping through the roofs and focused on the task at hand.

Several years later, he would deeply regret following protocol and leaving the child to his own devices. But, that was a story for another time.

* * *

Kishi grinned as he realised that he had arrived at the fence before the blond brat. Knowing that the kid could come rushing here at any minute, he quickly took out a pair of wire cutters that he always kept in his pocket should he want to trespass on some property and cut a hole small enough for a kid to crawl through, and then stacked nearby creates close to the hole. Job done, he retreated down the path he had come from and waited for his prey to arrive.

He didn't have to wait long. The blond child soon came barrelling down the road, the look of sheer terror on face making it hard for Kishi to rein his laughter in. He jumped out of his hiding spot, roaring at the kid and sent him scurrying to the fence, where he noticed the hole and immediately crawled through it.

Kishi sprinted forward and immediately pushed the crates he had stacked earlier, causing the boxes to fall down and block the little hole he had made. By this time, he could not contain his laughter anymore and sat down on the floor, laughing hard while Moto caught up with him and joined him in his laughter.

That Forest was filled with gigantic spiders and other creepy crawlies that would give an adult nightmares for weeks. He would let the kid stew in there for a while and then let him out after being suitably scared. The thought of the look on the kid's face when he saw one of the monsters in there caused him to break out in greater peals of laughter.

The sound of approaching footsteps and multiple voices caused him to sober up and stop laughing. Kishi cursed at the sight of the red and white fans. The Uchiha Military Police! Pulling up his friend by the arm, the two of them sprinted away from the police.

Focused on their pursuit of the two miscreants, none of the Uchiha present paid any heed to the pile of crates lying on the floor.

* * *

Naruto raced down the alleyways, the bully hot on his heels. He was surprised that the bully had not caught him yet, seeing as the bully was much older than him and could thus run faster but it wasn't important anyway. The important thing was he had not been caught yet.

Looking ahead, he saw a huge forest looming behind a metal fence surrounding it and Naruto broke into a relieved grin. Once he reached the fence, all he would have to do was follow it and avoid capture for several more blocks and then he would be out in the central district of Konoha where there many people to hide among.

He should have known that he would not be so lucky. The blond child got the scare of his life when the bully that he thought had given up suddenly popped up from a hidden nook in the alley and roared at him.

Panic driving his body, Naruto bolted towards the fence where he saw a hole that was just the right size for him and too large for his pursuers to go through. Without a second thought, he dove into the hole and scrambled through it with all haste before they could do something like grab onto his legs.

It was only when the boxes collapsed, blocking the small hole that he realised that _maybe_ going through the hole was not such a good idea after all.

Naruto looked at the foreboding forest and gulped nervously. He really, really did not want to be here right now. This seemed like the kind of place where monsters and big bad wolves jumped out from the shadows to eat cute, young boys like him.

He turned back to where the boxes blocked the hole and tried to push them away but they were too heavy for his small body to move. He shouted out for help then, pleading for someone to help him but unbeknownst to him, the last possible rescuer had already left the area quite some time ago.

After several failed attempts at shouting for help, Naruto gave it up as a hopeless attempt and focused on getting out of his current predicament. After all, this wasn't the first time in his four years of life that he had been stuck somewhere frightening. Actually, this wouldn't even be the twentieth time.

There was the time when he had fallen into a dumpster when he was two, even though he couldn't remember it anymore. Well, the matron could remember it and never failed to bring it up when he got all dirty from his explorations again. Then there was the time where he had gotten the brilliant idea to explore the sewers and been hopelessly lost in the twisting tunnels and ended up on the other end of Konoha when he had finally located a manhole that was not closed.

As he recounted his various misadventures to himself in his head, Naruto started to walk along the fence line, hoping to eventually reach a gate or something that he could use to get home. After all, the fence _had_ to lead somewhere, right?

The skies were rapidly getting darker though and the strange sounds emanating from deep within the forest were making Naruto more nervous. He wiped his sweaty palms on his pants as his eyes darted around rapidly. The matron always said that one day he would be eaten by monsters if he did not act like a good boy and stay in the orphanage. He should have listened to the matron.

Suddenly, his body stiffened as he felt something watching him. Slowly turning his head back, he was greeted by the sight of impossibly huge, impossibly bright eyes that stared at him unblinkingly. Those eyes belonged to a head that possessed a gigantic maw which contained teeth that Naruto was sure were longer than his arms.

He barely managed to muffle the terrified shriek that he wanted to let out as he sprinted into the forest, not caring where he was heading as long as it was away from _that_. He really, really should have listened to the matron.

It was pure instinct that saved him as he rolled to the side just as a gigantic paw slammed down on where he had been previously.

He took off immediately, diving straight into the forest where it suddenly turned darker than night. He stumbled upon hidden roots but never stopped running, always mindful of the gigantic tiger that was chasing him. It seemed like even the forest had come alive and was trying to trap him as low hanging branches and twigs would claw at him, tearing clothes and skin while vines would threaten to ensnare him if he was not careful.

His breath came in short, painful gasps and his lungs felt like they were burning, but his legs never stopped moving. At least he was able to see better now, as everything in front of him seemed brighter now. In fact, it was almost like there was a red glow to everything around him that let him see better.

He tripped on another treacherous root and fell down to the ground again. This time, he didn't bother getting up on his feet and instead ran forward on his hands and legs. Surprisingly, it was much easier for him to run like this but he never dared to slow, the sound of a huge mass crashing through the branches telling him that the tiger was still pursuing him.

Spotting a hollow in between the roots of a tree, Naruto sprinted towards it with increased speed, seeking a safe haven from the terrifying predator behind him. If he was older, and possessed a larger vocabulary, the words 'déjà vu' would have come to mind.

Entering the hollow, Naruto scrambled to the far end of the tree trunk and pressed himself against it as the tiger shoved its paw into the hollow before it got stuck, its vicious looking claws mere centimetres away from Naruto. The tiger struggled to get its paw in further into the trunk but that was evidently its limit. Eventually, the tiger withdrew its paw and padded away, presumably to chase less bothersome prey.

Naruto waited for several minutes to make sure that the tiger was not returning before he let out a sigh of relief and slowly crawled to the entrance of the hollow and poked his head out to check to see if the area was clear.

That was when a gigantic head slammed into the tree trunk as the tiger let out a ferocious roar before it snapped its jaws shut. Naruto frantically backpedalled, pushing himself with his hands as well as his legs, cutting his hands open once more and causing them to bleed.

The tiger seemed to have gone berserk with rage, slamming its titanic body against the tree that Naruto was hidden under, causing great tremors to travel through the trunk. Naruto started to cry and scream with fear, certain that he was going to die as he wished with all his heart that he would be able to escape from this.

For the first time in his life, Naruto's wish was answered as the hollow was suddenly lit up with bright blue symbols that seemed to be etched into the inner side of the tree trunk and the ground before the ground suddenly gave way below him.

Having fallen silent when the strange symbols had appeared, Naruto started screaming anew, only for it to be swallowed by the abyss as he continued to descend into the bottomless pit.

* * *

The Sandaime Hokage could not help but smile fondly as he flipped open the locket he carried and viewed the picture of Naruto happily gorging himself with ramen on his birthday while waving cheekily at the camera.

He had initially viewed the Jinchuuriki as a duty for him to keep an eye on for the safety of Konoha; as an obligation to Minato to look after his legacy and as a reminder of his guilt and impotence. However, over time, all of these labels had been slowly shed after exposure to the sunny blond. In the end, he was simply Naruto, the child who braved his painful life with a bright smile on his face.

"That your grandson?"

He looked to the side at his fellow Kage before shaking his head genially.

"No, but I suppose he could be considered an adopted grandson of sorts. My own daughter is currently pregnant with her own child though. I'm personally hoping for a daughter but my daughter wishes for a son instead."

Oonoki grunted in response before he sighed wistfully. "Should have built a family when I had the chance to, then I'd have my own little brats running around but it's too late now, hmm?"

"It's never too late to change something as long as you realise that something has to be done."

"Ha! My back'd never be able to take it." Oonoki scoffed before looking around irritably.

"Damned whippersnappers. Youngsters nowadays have no manners at all, keeping their elders and betters waiting for them."

"Now now, it's not their fault, really. After all, we were the ones that arrived early and besides, you cannot blame them for not wanting to be here early. It is not for a joyous occasion that we meet." Sarutobi placated.

At this, the Sandaime Tsuchikage calmed down a little, although the mood at the table that they were grew grim. There was never good news when the five Kages assembled at a single table. The last time had been with the infamous S-ranked shinobi Akasuna no Sasori assassinated the Sandaime Kazekage. This time, it was because Hoshigaki Kisame had assassinated the Daimyo of the Mizu no Kuni, which was no mean as the Daimyo always had a guard of elite shinobi guarding him at all times.

While the purported reason for gathering was to renew contracts and treaties with the new Daimyo, the actual purpose was to gather information. After all, it might be a village's responsibility to hunt down its own nuke-nin but a S-ranked nuke-nin was a menace to all of the Elemental Countries.

The Hokage sighed despondently. Each time the Kages gathered it felt like more of his life was sapped away. It was only by thinking of the village and its inhabitants that awaited him that kept him going. Looking down at the locket in his hand again, he could not help but flinch when the glass protecting the picture suddenly cracked.

"That...is not a good omen." Oonoki murmured and the Hokage could not help but agree in his heart. Being veterans of two wars, both Kages had developed a healthy reliance on their gut feelings on omens as well as their tactical minds.

Wherever he was, Sarutobi hoped dearly that Naruto was safe and that this would prove to just a silly superstition of silly old men.

* * *

Naruto woke up to the feeling of pain. Sheer mind-numbing pain. He tried to move his head only for his vision to swim. He dry-heaved but nothing came out. After all, he had skipped lunch to sneak out of the orphanage when the caretakers of the orphanage would be occupied with hordes of hungry children demanding food.

After his stomach steadied and it no longer felt like the entire Akimichi clan was dancing in his head, he tried to push himself off the ground with his right arm only for him to gasp in pain while stars twirled in front of his eyes. An attempt to use the other arm resulted in the same result. However, he knew that he could not simply lie there and wait for help. Would people even know where to find him?

Gritting his teeth, he pushed off against the floor, and against the pain, and brought himself up to a sitting position. From there, all he needed to do was use his legs to stand up straight. Thankfully, it seemed like his legs were not injured as he felt no pain when he stretched them out experimentally.

With a grunt of exertion, he tensed his leg muscles and stood up, his body wobbling unsteadily as he stumbled to a nearby rocky wall, leaning against it to keep himself from falling. It had been hard enough getting to his feet. He definitely did not want to repeat the entire thing over again.

When he finally felt strong enough to stand without aid, Naruto looked around himself and observed his surroundings. He seemed to be in some sort of tunnel. A large wall blocked the way behind him and he seemed to have fallen from a hole in the ceiling. With only one way forward, Naruto decided to trudge forward in the hopes that the tunnel would lead him to somewhere that he was familiar with.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Naruto pushed a thick clump of tall grass away from his face and emerged onto the surface. He was once again in a forest but he could tell immediately that it was not the same forest that he was trapped in earlier. It was much more peaceful and quiet, with none of the bloodcurdling howls that perpetuated the night air of the previous forest.

Naruto frowned as he scratched his head. He was somewhat safe now but he had no idea where he was supposed to go. The bedtime stories had told of adventurers that used the stars to find their way but Naruto had no idea how to do so. Eventually, he simply picked a random direction and walked.

And walked.

And walked.

It never seemed to end and Naruto was soon reaching his limits. The cold night air lashed cruelly at his exposed skin, his torn clothes too damaged to protect him from the harsh elements. His legs that had originally felt like jelly now felt more like lead and it took a herculean effort to lift them up. His eyelids felt like weights had been tied to them and he struggled to stay awake for even a second more. He had never stayed up this late before. He had never missed the orphanage so much in his life.

Eventually, he stumbled and crashed onto the floor. The grass felt so comfortable and he felt _so_ tired. He would just take a short nap for a while...

As the boy slept, his temperature plummeted sharply and his pulse slowed with every passing second until it stopped.

* * *

There was a gate before him. A gigantic gate that rivalled the size of the Hokage Monument, with multiple pictures carved onto its metal surface. It looked so grand and wonderful but Naruto did not want to go near it. Something about it scared him deeply.

However, no matter his thoughts on the matter, his feet brought him closer to the gates. He tried to force himself to stop but his traitorous feet never stopped their slow march. The closer they got to the gate, the greater the sense of _wrongness_ and fear that he felt. He bent down and used his hands to pull at his feet but it achieved the same result as trying to push the Hokage Tower down.

After some time, he stopped in front of the gates. It was then that the gates opened slightly, revealing a black void within. Naruto could hear voices too, though they were so faint that he could not hear them clearly.

Craning his head forward, his curiosity getting the better of his fear a moment, Naruto tried to hear the words better only for the gates to suddenly slam open, revealing a gigantic eye staring down at him. Hundreds, thousands, no, millions of eyes then blossomed like demonic flowers within that one giant eye, whereupon black humanoid figures that looked 'flat' started to push themselves out from the irises of the eyes. Their mouths opened in a grotesque mimicry of a smile as they stretched their arms out to Naruto.

Screaming in fear, Naruto's feet finally obeyed their master's command as they carried him as far away from the gate as they could, but it was to no avail. The arms of the figures stretched out like noodles and grabbed onto Naruto, reeling him in like a fish while the delighted screeches that emerged from their mouths drowned out his screams of terror.

He screamed and struggled and prayed for a saviour but nothing happened until a deep guttural voice resounded throughout the space that he was in.

"**Do you fear death?"**

Death? Was that what this was? Did dying meant being pulled into the gates by these monsters where unknown horrible things would be done to him? If so, yes, he feared death. He screamed it out, shouted it out but the monsters were so loud that he could not even hear his own words.

It seemed though, that the strange being could hear what he said.

"**Would you like to escape death?"**

Yes, yes, oh god please help him! He was getting closer and closer and the voices were getting louder and louder and he was scared and didn't want to die!

"**Would you do anything to escape death?"**

Yes, yes he would oh gods he was inside and the gates were closing and oh god please save him he didn't want to die no he could feel the monsters crowding around and HEDIDN'TWANTTODIE and then he was out of the gates and staring up into a pair of eyes that were darker than the abyss itself.

"**I grant you your wish, mortal. You shall live, and each time you approach my realm you shall continue to live and grow in strength but in return, I claim your happiness and future for myself."**

Suddenly, Naruto felt something grab his right arm before the edges of his sight to started to darken and he then fell unconscious but not before hearing one last statement that seemed to echo around him.

"**Dance for me, my little pawn. In return for the gift of life, I curse you with misery and sadness. Entertain me, Uzumaki Naruto!"**

* * *

In a forest in Hi no Kuni, a pulse started beating in the body of a blond child where there had been none before, while a black skeletal handprint appeared on the child's right arm and then faded away.

The legend had begun.

* * *

**A/N: And that's the end of the chapter. It's rather short because it's still the beginning. In fact, chapters will not be very long yet until quite a few chapters away when fight scenes start happening.**

**Please tell me your opinions of this chapter. Review, review, review! =D**


	2. Chapter 2 En Passant

**Winds of Change Chapter Two- En Passant**

**A/N: Well, it seems like my update time will range from four to six days. It might pick up as I eventually get used to writing but don't get your hopes up too high. Before the chapter begins, I would like to address some matters.**

**1)Do not review or pm me telling you want a certain pairing. This story has been planned from the beginning to the end and no amount of cajoling will change that. It only serves to irritate me and it's for one to write when irritated.**

**2)As the story progresses, I will constantly leave hints for the observant as to how the future will play out in my fic. Here's a few tips for spotting these hints. The most obvious ones would be the italic little excerpts at the start of a chapter. Do not note just the message, but also the author of the message. Other than that, if I give a non throwaway character a name, there tends to be a meaning behind it. If you know your Japanese history well, some elements of the plot should surface in time. Oh and just to clarify, throwaway characters would be like the bullies in chapter one who do not play much of a role.**

**Now, on to the story.**

* * *

_In order to forge a sword that is strong, the blade must be repeatedly heated and then tempered while the steel itself is refolded many times._

_-__Sengo Muramasa, Basics on swordsmithing, Year 142 AS, pg. 6_

* * *

Fire country his ass! He had no idea how a country that was so blisteringly cold in the early morning could have fire anywhere in its name. He swore he could feel the cold air eroding away at his old weak and joints. If Hi no Kuni had not possessed such lush woods and superior wood, he would not have bothered travelling all the way from his comfortable home in Cha no Kuni.

Letting out another groan of complaint, the old woodcutter continued through his trek in the forest. His keen eyes, honed from years of experience, eliminated the inferior trees that he came across, looking for the one that was 'just right'. It was a tough and troublesome trip, but the payoff was always worth the trouble.

He paused as he caught sight of something on the forest ground a distance that did not belong there. Edging closer warily, his breath hitched in his chest as he realised that the 'something' was the body of a small boy. How did-Who would-Why on- No, that did not matter.

Leaving his cart behind, he ran forward as quickly as his old bones could allow. To his surprise, the boy was miraculously still alive. His face was almost blue from the cold and the pulse was barely even there but he _was_ alive!

The old man quickly shrugged his fur coat off and wrapped it around the boy, rubbing the boy through the coat to try to generate some heat. The loss of the coat made him feel the cold even more intensely but he ignored it. For an old man like him who had lived far past his time, falling ill did not really matter. Not when the life of the next generation was at stake.

Lifting the boy up, he carried him to the cart where he managed to coax some water into the boy. He then eyed the bundle of wood that he had managed to obtain before he had found the boy. He had hoped to get more than this but it was imperative for him to get the boy away from the forest as soon as possible.

Other than the fact that the boy needed immediate medical attention, there were only a few reasons why a boy as young him was out in the forest all alone and none of them bode well for the boy.

Thankfully, he was far fitter than many other men his age thanks to his physically demanding job. As he hefted up the handles of the cart though, he could not help but muse how much a horse would have helped in this situation.

* * *

"I'm sorry but you can't pass."

"What? But my Visa is in order! You approved it when I crossed over into Konoha!" the old man argued indignantly.

"Your visa is fine, as are you, but the child in the back of the cart has no such Visa so you cannot pass unless you leave the child here." The border guard stated.

"The boy is ill! He needs to see a doctor. Can't you see how close he is to death? Please, let us pass." The old man pleaded.

"The rules are the rules. No visa, no passage and that's final."

"Please, won't you have pity on an old man and young boy?" the old man pleaded once again as he clasped the guard's hands, ryo hidden in his palms.

"Very well, you may go. Never let it be said that I was not understanding." The guard said as he discreetly kept the bribe.

"Thank you, kind sir. May the heavens smile upon you for your generosity." The old man smiled ingratiatingly as he continued pass the border gate. Once he was far away enough though, he hawked and spat on the ground as he pointed a middle finger in the direction of the border guard.

Things had not always been like this. Cha no Kuni had once been a wondrous place to live in but that had changed when the new Daimyo took over. He was, to put it kindly, a cowardly, greedy swine of a man. As long as he still received taxes from the people, he cared not for the affairs of the state and indulged himself in the worldly pleasures while he left the state advisors and governors to basically rule the state for him.

Corruption had quickly propagated throughout the land. The Daimyo had then, in his greed, tried to build up a shinobi force that could conquer the neighbouring islands and small countries but the budding shinobi force was brutally stamped out by the combined forces of Konohagakure and Kirigakure; both of which were close to Cha no Kuni and were not willing to let an upstart grow right in their backyard.

The shinobi villages had then forced the Daimyo to disband half of the remaining samurai forces in return for 'protection' by the shinobi villages and various trade agreements that were vastly in the favour of the shinobi villages. Of course, the only protection that they provided was the protection of their own interests, where they guarded high profile clients that were profitable to them. The rest of the country was left to the wolves and by god, did the wolves strike.

With a much diminished army that was spread too thin trying to police the entire country at the same time, the country was unable to defend itself from the multiple brigands that had seemingly sprouted from the woodworks. The roads were no longer safe to travel, which led to trade caravans rarely travelling to far-flung villages like the one the old man lived in.

That was the reason why the old man's rare Konoha wood fetched such a high price in his village and the nearby villages as well. After all, with the supply of foreign goods so low in his village, the old man could basically set any price he wanted and anyone who wanted higher quality wood would have to pay it no matter how high the price was.

The old man sighed as he shook his head. The country was going to hell and judging by the state of the boy, probably not only his country as well.

What was the world coming to?

* * *

He was running in a world that was surrounded by a suffocating darkness. He ran, with his feet never touching the ground but somehow he was still able to run. Then suddenly he was falling. He flailed around, trying to get hold of something but there was nothing to hold. The fall stopped as abruptly as it started and then he was staring into a pair of inky black eyes.

"**Child."**

He felt himself being grabbed on his right arm which started feeling cold and he started to cry out in discomfort and fear.

"**Child."**

"Child."

"Child, wake up."

"Child, it's just a nightmare. Wake up."

Naruto's eyes flashed open to take in the sight of an unfamiliar face looming over him. He screamed in fear (a distant part of him noted that he seemed to be doing that a lot recently) and backpedalled until he hit a wall, staring frightfully at the unknown old man in front of him while trying to take in the surroundings at the same time.

He was in a small room that gave off the impression of being cozy rather than cramped. The stranger that had shaken him awake and now stood in front of the bed that he was sitting on was in front of him, while an old woman stood behind him. She walked forward and, to Naruto's great surprised, slapped the back of the old man's head.

"Look at what you did, you senile old fool. You went and scared the poor little boy!" she scolded.

"Well, what was I to do? He was having such a horrid nightmare and I couldn't just leave him alone like that, could I?" The old man argued as he tried to defend himself.

"Even so, you didn't need to loom over him like that, did you?" the old woman as she pulled the old man away from where he was standing by the scruff of his shirt collar.

"I'm so sorry dear if my idiot of a husband surprised you." The old woman said as she smiled kindly at Naruto.

"He means well, really but I think the trees fell on him one too many times when he was out cutting them down." She then bustled around the room, sweeping up what seemed like invisible dust to Naruto while she continue chattering on happily, oblivious to Naruto's gobsmacked look before she paused, a horrified look coming over her face.

"Oh dear, I can't believe I forgot about _that_! Give me a moment, dear, and I'll be right back." The old woman bustled out of the room and bustled back in a few minutes with a tray of food in one hand. Naruto idly noted that the old woman seemed to do a lot of bustling for one as old as she was. Naruto then noted that he seemed to be noting a lot of things to himself as well. He was broken out of his musings when the aroma of the food wafted to his nostrils, causing his stomach to gurgle loudly.

It was then that he realised how hungry he was but he was still so shell-shocked by the recent events that he did not dare to move an inch. The old woman seemed to notice his problem and left the room, dragging her husband along with her while telling Naruto that it was better to eat the cakes while they were still hot before closing the door behind her.

Left to his own devices, Naruto crept forward and sank his teeth into one of the incredibly soft and tasty cakes. After that one bite, it was like a dam had broken in him as he gorged himself on the heavenly food and cleared it in record time, making sure to even lick the plate clean. It seemed like it had been _forever_ since he had last eaten.

That had to be one of the best things he had ever eaten. Cakes at the orphanage were extremely rare and he usually only got to eat them on his birthday. This cake totally beat the birthday cakes that he had had before.

Feeling drowsy now after the large meal, Naruto curled up on the oh so soft bed and fell asleep.

* * *

When he next woke up, Naruto had an urgent urge to visit the toilet. Scrambling out of the bed that he had been sleeping on, Naruto pushed the door to his room open and poked his head out. Seeing nobody around, he crept out of the room in search for a toilet when he suddenly came face to face with the old woman.

While she had been nothing but kind to him, providing food to him and giving him a bed to sleep on, the fact remained that she was a stranger and he was in an unknown place. He froze at the sight of the old woman, unsure of how to react when the old woman simply smiled at him, gave him directions to the toilet and then continued on her way without Naruto having even told her that he was looking for the toilet.

Utterly confused now, Naruto mechanically used the toilet and then returned to his room where he promptly fell asleep again.

* * *

The following days passed much like his first day at this unfamiliar house. He would sometimes wake up screaming from a nightmare that he could not remember anything of, and the old couple would be there beside him, with some water and food. After sating his belly, he would then fall back asleep. The only times when he stepped out of the room was when he needed to visit the toilet.

As the days passed though, the lethargy that Naruto had been weighed down by started to receded and Naruto found himself needing to sleep less.

One day, as he sat on his bed chewing through a ham and cheese sandwich, Naruto muttered "Naruto."

"I'm sorry, what did you say?" The old woman asked as she paused in her cleaning.

"Naruto. That's my name."

"That's a very nice name you have, Naruto-chan!" The old woman said as she beamed at him. The bright smile that the old woman had given him for just saying his name made him feel extremely guilty for having distrusted her for so long when she had been so kind to him. More than that, that smile had made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and he resolved to try to make the old woman smile more often.

* * *

He broke out of his shell then and started to converse with the old couple more. His naturally sunny disposition made sure that there was never an awkward silence in the house as he kept chattering about everything and nothing at the same time, while the old couple simply smiled indulgently and occasionally interjected with some interesting and amusing anecdotes.

He took to calling them Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan and they never seemed to mind. In fact, that might as well have been their names as everyone in the small village always addressed the old couple as either Ojii-san or Obaa-san as well.

Naruto also tried to help out in the household as much as he could. He would fetch the tools that Ojii-chan needed to cut the wood that he brought back. When one of them dropped something on the ground, he would scurry forward and pick it up to put less stress on the old couples' backs. He would help to set the table before meals and then help to wash them after meals as well.

He never grew tired of the smiles that they gave him and _only him_ as well as the praises that they lavished upon him when he was a good boy. It was the happiest he had ever been. While he knew that the matron at the orphanage did care for him, she had to look after many other children at the same time and her attention was always divided. Here though, Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan paid attention to only him and it made him feel _special_.

It was everything he had imagined a family would be like. That word always caused a lurch in his heart and a smile to immediately break out on his face. For many years, 'family' had been a word in a dictionary; a dream to yearn for. It was something that he could see but never touch. He was so happy now that he could cry. In fact, he _had_ cried when they had said that they loved him. Obaa-chan had only hugged him tightly and understandingly at his sudden tears, which made him bawl even louder while Ojii-chan stood off to the side, a confused look on his face.

That was how it always was. Obaa-chan was the tender, loving grandmother that understood him perfectly while Ojii-chan was the gruff grandpa that told him stories of heroes and showed him how to be a 'true man'. Whenever he fell down though, or when he had injured himself in one way or another, Ojii-chan was always the first one there with some balm or band-aids at hand.

They were also weird sometimes, like how Obaa-chan could spend her entire day cleaning happily, or how she always smacked her husband while treating Naruto as though he was made of glass. There was also Ojii-chan's frequent bouts of forgetfulness, where he would stand out in the yard and scratch his head, wondering what he had wanted to there do there, along with his cursing that did not make sense to Naruto at all, and always got him smacked by Obaa-chan.

It was not all just fun and games for Naruto though. Obaa-chan had somehow gotten into her head that Naruto needed Education. That word terrified the little blond boy utterly, because Education meant that he had to sit still for long periods _thinking_, memorising, and writing different kanji and hiragana repeatedly until he had them ingrained into his brain.

The reason why he dreaded these sessions was not because he was stupid. Well, Obaa-chan seemed to find his scholastic pursuits progressing at a remarkably pace, nor did he find much difficulty in what Obaa-chan taught him. It was the fact that he actually had to sit down for prolonged periods of time and that he had to focus.

Naruto was not the kind of kid that could sit down for even a short amount of time. His body was always filled to the brim with energy and he felt like he _had_ to move to burn it off at least a little. Naruto did not liked to focus either, which was needed when one was trying to memorise something. He liked to let his mind wander, his attention flitting from object to object while his wild imagination created incredible fantasies to entertain himself. A smudge on a wall could be a rabbit while a shadow nearby could take the shape of a dog chasing the rabbit if he squinted.

Even though the old couple was weird and they forced him to, ugh, study, he put up with their strange antics and endured the torture that was studying because he loved them. He truly did, from the bottom of his heart. Giving had never before felt so pleasant to him.

* * *

Ojii-chan also took to bringing Naruto around the village that they lived in to get him familiarised with it. They would pass by people training with swords and spears sometimes. Ojii-chan had said that they were training to get stronger so that they could protect the village from any bad people that might want to come to the village.

Being a boy, Naruto could not help but be enamoured by the thought of swinging around swords and spears and defeating bad people. He sulked throughout the entire trip while Ojii-chan kept him tethered with a firm grasp as they walked through the village.

All the villagers seemed to know each other by name and they would often wave at Ojii-chan as they passed by. They always addressed him as Ojii-san though, and Naruto snickered at the thought that the couple were so old that they were born before names had been created, which was why they had no names and everyone simply called him 'Ojii-san' or 'Obaa-san'.

More important than that though, was that the villagers also waved to him. They _noticed_ him. They even gave him sweets and commented on how cute he was while they pinched his cheeks and curiously touched the whisker marks that he had on his cheeks. It was ticklish and a little uncomfortable when they touched his whisker marks or when they pinched his cheeks but he did not mind. In fact, he practically basked in the attention that he received.

Another villager had caught sight of Ojii-san and his new grandchild and, unable to resist the temptation, knelt down in front of the boy and pinched his cheeks, cooing about how cute he was all the while. After some time of pinching and tickling (she found that the boy was very ticklish near his ribs), she eventually looked up at the old man and asked a question that caused the boy to freeze.

"So, where did you find this cute little boy?"

The old couple and Naruto had never talked about where or how they had found him. They never asked, and he had never volunteered that information, although he could not have given much anyway. His memories of that night were very fuzzy. All he remembered was a lot of running and a lot of fear before he had finally collapsed in the forest that Ojii-chan had found him in. He wondered how the old man would reply.

"I found him alone and injured in a forest while gathering wood, and then I brought him back for treatment." That, combined with the what the old man had _not_ said along with the hard glint in the old man's eyes told her all that she needed to know.

"Is that so? Well, good thing you found this cutie then, or we would never have been able to play with him!" she said as she resumed tickling Naruto while he struggled to escape her clutches, laughing all the while. Everything would be alright.

* * *

The days passed by in a peaceful haze until four months had passed since he had been found by Ojii-chan like the blink of an eye. There wasn't much to do in the village, as it was quite a small and secluded village and the old couple did not allow him to explore the wilderness surrounding the village on the basis that it was dangerous.

Naruto wanted to retort that he had been exploring for _ages_ and that he would be fine until he remembered what had happened the last time he had gone exploring. He realised that the old couple were simply worried for his safety and that touched him, so he kept his peace and continued an obedient boy.

In truth, although a part of him still craved the grand adventure that all young boys dreamt of going on, he appreciated what he had, unlike many other children his age. The old couple were poor and could not buy many toys for him but the wooden figures that Ojii-chan carved for him were more than enough. He already had all that he had ever wanted and more, and did not dare to wish for more. He would have been perfectly fine to live out his life peacefully in this idyllic village.

Unfortunately, it was not to be.

* * *

Naruto was sitting at the meal table, chattering happily with the old couple in between bites of the venison that was the day's lunch when the bell in the centre of the village suddenly sounded. The old woman immediately paled while the old man's face turned grim.

They immediately stood up and ushered Naruto to a corner of the house, where they pulled up some floorboards, revealing a hole just large enough for Naruto to hide in. Without further ado, they tried to push Naruto into the hole, only for him to resist as he had no idea what was going on.

"Please get in, Naruto-chan." The old woman pleaded. "It's for your safety."

"My safety? What's wrong? I'm not going into the hole unless you tell me what's happening!"

Seeing that Naruto was not going to relent, the old man hastily tried to explain the situation to the four year old child.

"Do you remember the bad men that I told you about?" Naruto nodded in response, the look of confusion still on his face.

"Well, the bad men are attacking the village soon. That is why the bell is ringing, so we want you to be safe here just in case one of them sneaks past the defenders and finds you."

"But if the bad men are here I'll fight too! I can run fast! I'll protect Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan!" Naruto declared, fire burning in his eyes.

It warmed the old couple to see such bravery and devotion to the both of them, but the thought of letting him fight did not even cross their minds.

"Thank you, Naruto-chan, but we want you to stay here and be safe. Please." Naruto had never seen the old man plead for anything before and to see him now kneeling in front of Naruto broke any of his resolve. Before he climbed into the hole though, he quickly hugged the both of them, trying to convey his love through his physical actions.

They seemed to get the message, as they gave him several watery smiles, and then warned him to never open the trapdoor no matter and then closed it on him, leaving him all alone in that cramped darkness. It was stifling and more than a little scary being trapped in such a small space but the thought of the old couple allowed him to endure it.

The old couple returned to the meal table and resumed eating placidly, looking as though everything was right with the world. Their tense bodies and tightened eyes belied their nervousness though as they waited to see if the invaders would be repelled by the village militia.

They did not have to wait long.

The door to their house slammed open and a small group of brigands marched in, only to groan at the sight of the old couple.

"Oi, Masashi! It's just a couple of old people in here!"

"Seriously?" another brigand groaned as he walked in through the door, his superior looking armour indicating that he was of a higher rank than the brigands that had walked in previously.

The brigand glanced around the room and saw nothing of value that he could loot. The old couple were too old to sell either and were generally useless. This was a waste of his time! He should have picked a different house. Maybe then he'd have more fun.

"Just kill them however you want to. I'm going to see if there's something worth looting in his junk heap." Masashi growled as he prowled around the room.

Just as one of the brigands had lifted his sword, Masashi spotted an anomaly in the room. There were only two old people in the house so why were there three plates on the table, with all of them being half-eaten? A vicious grin spread across his face as he signalled for his underling to stop the killing blow.

"So, who else is in this house, old woman?" He asked as he pulled her up by her hair until she was in his face. The old man tried to rush to the help of his wife only to get kicked down by one of the underlings and get pinned to the floor by their feet.

"There is only the two of us in this house. I don't know what you're talking about."

"Obstinate to the end huh? Oh well, that just makes things more fun in the end." He then turned to his underlings and shouted an order at them.

"Oi shitheads! There's a third person in this house somewhere. If we're lucky, they're hiding a pretty that we can get to enjoy. First person to find her gets second pickings. I get dibs of course." Naturally, all of them cursed him for always getting the best pickings first but they were used to it already. In the world of outlaws, might made right and in the small group of bandits in the house, Masashi was the strongest of them.

The underlings started to ransack the house, searching through every nook and cranny while Masashi sat in the living room, kicking the old couple occasionally to get a few grunts of pain to alleviate his boredom.

Eventually, one of the underlings let out a whoop of delight as he pried open the floorboards that hid Naruto, only to curse as he unearthed the small blond boy. He manhandled the boy, dragging him to the living room before tossing onto the floor with disgust.

"It was just a _boy_" the underling groaned in disgust.

Masashi could not deny the disappointment that he felt as well. He had really been hoping for a good romp to satisfy himself. Unwilling rape victims always felt so much better to him than some jaded old whore at a brothel.

"Oh well, at least we can still put him to work back the camp. That should give us some extra pay from the boss" Masashi muttered as he kicked the boy to vent his anger.

"No! Please, leave Naruto-chan alone. I hid some jewellery in a cache in the woods nearby. I'll lead you to them if you'll leave the boy alone." The old woman pleaded as she grabbed onto his leg.

"Now why didn't you just mention that earlier, you old hag? Things would have been so much easier for you. You really don't want to see the boy suffer huh?" the brigand said as he knelt down to pat her head.

Nodding vigorously, the old woman sighed internally in relief. It was a lie, of course, but the brigand seemed stupid enough to believe her and hopefully this would somehow buy enough time for Naruto to escape the clutches of these evil men.

Seeing the old woman nod so frantically gave Masashi an idea. The cache was probably a lie, but even though it was just two geezers and a brat in the house, he could still have some fun. Just not the type that he had intended on initially.

The dark, sadistic side in him reared up as he spotted a spoon on the table near him. Picking it up, he signalled for his underlings to let the old man go as he crouched down next to the old man and handed him the spoon.

The old man took it, the confused look on his face cracking up Masashi up internally all the more, but he couldn't laugh yet. He had to act serious for the time being. That would make it all the more fun later on.

"Hey old man. Your wife doesn't want to see the kid suffer so being the kind husband that you are, you are going to help her, using that spoon." Masashi said as he put his arms around the old man's shoulder, mockingly acting as if they were comrades.

"What? I don't-"

"it's simple really." Masashi cut off the old man's words. "She doesn't want to _see_, get it?"

The old man had a sinking feeling that he knew what the brigand was asking for but hoped that the leader was not as sadistic as he feared but that turned out to be a fool's hope.

"God, are you senile already? It's simple. Dig out the eyes of your wife with that spoon or else I'll mutilate the boy right in front of you. You choose."

"But, but...please, don't do-" the old man was cut off once more by Naruto's anguished cry as the brigand leader stabbed the boy ruthlessly in an arm.

"Dear, do what he asks before he hurts Naruto-chan anymore!" the old woman cried out.

"I...I can't. This is..." Another pain scream pierced through the air and their hearts as the brigand stabbed Naruto's other arm.

"I'm going to run out of non-lethal places to stab soon so you'd better hurry if you want your boy to live." The brigand leader warned as he drew a circle around the boy's heart with the tip of his knife. Galvanised by the threat to their dear boy's life, the old man crept forward, the hand holding the spoon trembling greatly.

As he reached his wife of many decades, the old man turned around to try and plead for mercy once more only for another of Naruto's strangled screams to batter their eardrums.

"Do it, dear, for Naruto-chan. We cannot let a young boy suffer when all it takes is some sacrifice on my part."

"But...this is..." the old man could not even voice out his thoughts, horror and pain choking him at what he was supposed to do _to his wife_.

Masashi did not bother hurrying old man up as he was busy enjoying the scene. Many of his fellow bandits simply enjoyed the screams of agony that their torture victims made. Masashi was different. He preferred to torment his victims mentally. The look on the old man's face now was especially exquisite. It looked like he needed another push though. He idly twisted the knife that he had embedded in the boy's leg, drawing forth another cry of pain that finally made the old man move.

The old man slow sunk the spoon into his wife's eye socket, meeting less resistance than he had expected. For her part, although it hurt more than she could have possibly imagined, the old woman bored it all with nerves of steel, uttering not a single whimper of pain, trying to make the process easier for her husband.

The eyeball was eventually dislodged and it fell to the ground with a soft 'plop'. The old man looked at the gaping eye socket on his wife's face and the gooey mess on the floor and lurched to the side, vomiting heavily. Naruto had watched the entire scene, for the horrible man who had stabbed him had forced him to look at Ojii-chan digging out Obaa-chan's eyes. He had been watching with a stunned and horrified silence but the 'plop' of the eyeball meeting the ground was the last straw.

The blond boy became berserk, thrashing wildly with newfound strength that did not belong to a four year old and he managed to free himself from the underling holding him down due to the element of surprise. He launched himself at the evil man who had started all this, only to be brutally backhanded into a wall where he slumped onto the ground, dazed but still conscious.

The old woman tried to take advantage of the brigand leader's momentary lapse of concentration to attack, only to be met with the business end of a sword.

Masashi kicked the old woman off his blade, sneering at the corpse while he slashed his sword across the throat of the old man who had tried to rush him. His fun now gone, Masashi spat on the ground as he ordered the underlings to loot the place empty while he picked the boy up. He wanted to be the one who presented the boy to the boss. After all, slaves were worth a lot.

* * *

Hell on earth greeted Naruto as he was carried out of the house. The quaint buildings were replaced by burning ruins. The grassy fields were painted in the blood of the villagers. Screams of pain and anguish replaced the laughter that the air was often filled with. The smell was horrible as the stench of blood, burnt flesh and opened bowels mingled together. He could see dead villagers everywhere, their glassy eyes facing the sky with their faces transfixed into a mask of horror. He could see women with ripped clothing on the ground screaming while bandits thrust violently with their hips on top of them.

It was too much for Naruto's young mind to take and his mind shut down from the sheer horrors that he had witnessed.

Even unconscious though, he could not escape from it as the scenes played in his nightmares over and over, although there was something new in his nightmares. In the background was the sound of dark, malevolent laughter.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter will serve as a sort of benchmark for my readers, I suppose. If you found this chapter too dark, turn away now. There will always be light-hearted sections but expect the amount of dark scenes to increase.**

**If you enjoyed my fic, review and tell me what you liked about it. If you hated it, review and tell me why you hated it too. Please don't review and tell me you hate the fic because it's too dark though. That's not really constructive =\**

**Also, for anyone who is unfamiliar with chess terms, en passant is when a pawn advances from its starting line by two squares and ends up beside an opposing pawn, whereby the opposing pawn can take it by crossing over to the square behind the pawn that just advanced.  
**

**To give a notation example:  
**

**White: A4 Black: B4-A3, A4 taken.  
**

**I'm sure you can get the symbolic meaning behind me choosing this as the title of the chapter.  
**

**Until next time!**


	3. Chapter 3 Gambit

**Winds of Change Chapter Three- Gambit**

**A/N: And so we come to another chapter. Before we begin the fic proper, there are some issues that I wish to address first.**

**1)A reviewer posted a review that Naruto would be unable to train to fight his **_**real**_** enemies like Akatsuki while stuck in a bandit camp or something the lines.**

**Seriously. What? Canon dumb as a doorknob Naruto basically began training at the age of 13 and he was able to beat Akatsuki 3 years later with a grand arsenal of six jutsu in his repertoire. I believe I have more than sufficient time to train him up, no?**

**Also, I wish to clarify that power ups will not be my main concern in this fic. Yes, Naruto will be strong but that is more likely to be a side effect of plot development rather than me actually **_**wanting**_** to power him up. **

**Plot development along with character development will always come foremost so I'm going to nip this in the bud now and beseech my readers to not send me complaints that Naruto is weak or whatsoever. You are perfectly welcome to go read the multiple SuperGodlike!Naruto with the random bloodlines or whatnot that other authors come up with. **

**2)Here's some explanation on the symbolism of the title of the previous chapter.**

**As I explained in the ending A/N for the previous chapter, en passant is basically a special move where a pawn is able to take another pawn that has just advanced two squares in a row with an out of the ordinary move.**

**The pawn that is taken obviously symbolises Naruto, while the two square advancement represents the happiness and family that he had gained with the old couple recently. It can also be taken that Naruto was punished only **_**because**_** he had been happy.**

**The pawn that performs the capturing move is naturally the bandit group leader, Masashi. Note that what happens in the scene (the mental torture) is out of the ordinary for a normal bandit. Note also that the En Passant causes the pawn to move in a manner that is out of the ordinary for a pawn. See the pattern yet?**

**Now, Naruto is represented as a pawn. A piece that can only move forward and advance pitifully slowly. There is once again symbolism in this.**

**I shall end this A/N with one final thing for you to ponder on. Naruto is a piece on the chessboard, but who are the players? Also note that in every game, there are **_**two**_** players.**

**Now, enjoy chapter three.**

* * *

"_Little wind, little wind, run around"_

_-A part of a children's playtime rhyme._

* * *

When the Sandaime returned to Konoha, the first thing that he had wanted to do was to spend time with his family and then check up on his unofficial grandson to see if he was all right. Unfortunately, that was not to be so.

The moment he stepped into Konoha, one of his ANBU operatives ambushed him with the deadly weapon of paperwork. In the time that he was gone, there were no less than twenty spies that had been caught. Of course, there were bound to be many more spies that had managed to escape with information on the village, albeit less important ones.

That was part and parcel of being a shinobi village. One spied on others and was spied on in return. Espionage was a fact of life. That was why villages often let spies obtain information that was less important to the security of the village, or information that could be quickly changed. The whole aim was to deflect the spies from the more important secrets that a village kept.

The spies that had been caught and detained were the ones that had either attempted sabotage in his absence or the ones that had tried to access Konoha's Top Secrets. Spies and Saboteurs were normally left to the Torture and Interrogation Force (T&I) for short but Sarutobi had left specific instructions that he wanted to oversee their interrogation himself.

These spies and saboteurs were likely to be sleeper agents that had lay hidden in Konoha for a long time. The Sandaime knew that Yamanaka Inoichi and his team were capable men but against such skilled operatives, he was not going to take any risks.

It looked like there were going to be many sleepless nights for him once again. But alas, such was the burden of the Hokage.

* * *

When he arrived at the orphanage four days later after finally being done with the entire affair of the spies, the matron of the orphanage immediately rushed out to greet the Sandaime, a relieved look on her face.

"Oh thank god you're finally here, Hokage-sama." She started, before pausing to take a breath from her run. She was no longer as young as she used to be. "Have you finally found Naruto-kun?"

"Found Naruto-kun? What do you mean?" Sarutobi asked as worry started to gnaw at the pits of his stomach.

The matron gave him a confused look. "But didn't you come here because of the report that I filed to your office?"

"Report?" He had not read any such report on his desk. The dread in him started to rise.

"Yes, the report that I submitted three days ago stating that Naruto-kun has gone missing!" the matron exclaimed as she lost control over her emotions. If the Sandaime had not caught on yet, that meant that he had received no such report, which in turn meant that Naruto-kun had been missing for four days and investigations had not started yet. In the world that they lived in, four days was an eternity if he had been kidnapped. The chances of recovering the boy were next to impossible now.

Turning quickly on his heels, the Hokage motioned for the matron to follow him as he quickly headed towards the Hokage Tower.

"Tell me what happened." He ordered as they walked, his eyes hardening.

* * *

Apparently, on the day that the Sandaime had left for the Five Kages Summit, Naruto had once again snuck out of the orphanage during lunch. Of course, the matron had noticed that he was missing when lunch ended and they did a head count before they let the kids play.

She did not bother to send anyone out to chase Naruto down. She had long learnt the folly of that. When Naruto did not want to be caught, it was an exercise in futility to try. Even at the tender age of four he gave even Genin difficulty and if he was in the alleys that he was so familiar with, even Chuunin had difficulty sometimes so the Sandaime did not blame her for this. After all, Naruto always returned to the orphanage in the night for dinner whenever he started to feel hungry.

When Naruto did not appear for dinner, the matron started to worry and went out to search for the little boy along with the other caretakers in the orphanage. The sky darkened fully and they still had not found the child yet. That was when some ANBU had appeared and politely told them that the village was under a curfew at the moment and that all unauthorised personnel had to stay in their homes.

The matron had explained the situation of Naruto's disappearance but the ANBU was unmoved. The law was the law, and any possible leaks in security were to be stamped out in the state of heightened security that the village was in. Unable to convince the ANBU no matter what she said, the matron had reluctantly returned to the orphanage where she prayed for the child's safety.

Naruto still had not returned by the next morning and the worry had turned into fear. Leaving the caretakers to care for the children in the orphanage, the matron had hurried to the Hokage Tower and the Uchiha Military Headquarters to file a report stating that Naruto had gone missing. She had then waited with no news until the Sandaime had visited her today.

* * *

The Hokage had immediately ransacked the pile of reports on his table to verify the matron's claims when he growled deep in his throat. The marks of sabotage were as plain as day. The secretaries in his charge had not done something as silly as burning the report, submitting it late or blocking it. Rather, everything was _technically_ right.

Decades ago, during his first term as Hokage, (he counted taking over after dear Minato had sacrificed himself as his second term) he had implemented a new system where the civilians could appeal directly to him if they had extremely urgent or important matters that the civilian council (which was formed by the Nidaime Hokage to settle purely civilian affairs) could not handle.

With this new system implemented, his image amongst the civilians grew even better. Laws that curtailed the freedom or rights of the civilians in favour of the shinobis no longer drew as many complaints. After all, he _was_ far better than the Kages in many other Hidden Villages.

Of course, Sarutobi did not dedicate much of his time to these appeals. The majority of his time was still spent governing the village and closely monitoring the state of his shinobi. As such, he normally only went through the appeals when he had cleared all of his paperwork; a rare event that happened at most once a week. Most appeals therefore took a long time before they even saw the light of day on his desk.

This was what the secretaries had exploited. Rather than filing it under the Urgent segment which the Hokage would have wanted, they had filed it under the civilian appeals segment, which was technically right. A quick check with the Uchiha Military Police would have revealed that a missing person report had been filed already. No missions had been requested to retrieve the boy either and seeing as Naruto was purely a civilian, there was nothing _wrong_ in filing it under the civilian appeals section.

It was obvious to him that the secretaries were exploiting a loophole to hopefully get rid of something that they hated but he could punish someone for doing something that was technically right. It would contradict everything that he had been doing for the past few decades.

* * *

The Sandaime had then marched over to the Uchiha Military Headquarters only to find the same thing there. The Uchiha had indeed carried out investigations to the best of their ability but had been unable to locate Naruto.

Normally, Naruto's case would have been regarded as a Highly Urgent case that would have been handed over to the ANBU after 24 hours of failed investigations. However, as with the secretaries in the Hokage Tower, they had classified Naruto as being a civilian and continued their standard operating procedures with civilians, which was to continue investigations for a full week before handing the case over to those with more ability.

The Hokage left feeling frustrated, disgusted and more importantly, impotent.

* * *

He immediately sent out all non-**essential** ANBU out on a search for Naruto as soon as he was back in his office. His old teammates and Danzo had dropped by to ask the Hokage why ANBU HQ was currently like a hornet's nest.

A quick and terse explanation left their faces grim and solemn. All of them understood the dire situation that this was. His teammates remained in his office to help him plan while Danzo hobbled out of his office as quickly as his act as a crippled old man would allow.

Sarutobi had no doubt that Danzo was on his way to activate his personal Ne ANBU that Danzo thought he knew nothing of. The two rivals might have very differing views on how Naruto was to be raised but they shared one common sentiment. Naruto was part of Konoha and if he had indeed been kidnapped, the Sandaime had no doubt that Danzo would eradicate the kidnappers with extreme prejudice.

* * *

The trail was four days old and would have been impossible for most people. However, the ANBU were not most people. They were the elite of the elite, accomplishing feats that even Jounin could only dream. Even in this group of elites, the specialised tracking unit possessed tracking abilities that far outstripped that of their peers.

They quickly followed the trail to the Forest of Death and could not help but grimace at where exactly in the forest they were. Unbeknownst to most people, shinobi included, TG44 was so large that it could be split into many sectors. While all of them were dangerous, some sectors were more dangerous than the rest. For example, the area where they sometimes held the Chuunin Exams in was the least dangerous sector. The Uzumaki had somehow managed to find himself in the most dangerous sector in TG44.

This was a sector where even an entire Chuunin squad could be wiped out if they were careless. Even if the Uzumaki was the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, he was still a child barely out of his diapers. The hopes of survival were...slim. Or more like next to non-existent. Nevertheless, they continued on their hunt. Miracles happened in this world many times.

They followed the trail to a giant tree with a hollow amongst its roots where the trail suddenly stopped. They searched a kilometre around the tree but did not find even a chewed up skeleton that could have belonged to the boy.

A quick check inside the hollow revealed smooth and unmarred forest ground. What was going on?

* * *

Naruto was woken up by a brutal kick to his ribs. He gasped in pain as he curled up in a foetal position but was given no time to recover. He was harshly pulled up by his hair and then the adult (for only an adult would have that amount of strength) clapped something cold and metallic on his hands and legs.

Looking down, Naruto saw a band of metal circling his wrists and ankles that was connected to a metal chain that was in turn connected to other children. A shove by the adult pushed him off the wagon that he was on and he ended up sprawling on the ground.

By now, the slave contingent had started marching but Naruto still lay on the ground, trying to recover from both the kick and the fall. At the same time, the back of his head throbbed continuously.

The chains that were attached to his manacles suddenly became taut as the child in front of Naruto tried to move off. Sensing resistance, the child turned back to see Naruto lying on the ground in obvious pain. He moved back to help the small child up only to receive a lash of a whip across his back.

The overseer who came moved down the line to discern the cause of the hold-up growled at the boy to continue moving, and then lashed at Naruto to get the blond child to stand up and move as well.

Naruto cried and pleaded for the bad man to stop but the tears did nothing to soften the overseer's heart. If anything, it made him whip the small boy even harder. Recognising that crying was not going to help his cause, Naruto scrambled to his feet despite his body's protests and almost sighed in relief when the lashings stopped.

He was lost and confused. The only thing that kept him moving was the need to survive. Instinct told him that if he simply kept quiet and kept his head low, he would be able to survive. Instinct also told him that if he displeased these bad men, he would die. Not having anyone else to guide or teach him, his instinct was the only thing that Naruto could trust and listen to.

The human chain then entered a tunnel that led underground. The sudden lack of light combined with their rapid pace made many children, Naruto included, stumble and trip. The whip came lashing down again mercilessly. Naruto quickly got up to his feet and hurried after the person in front of him, correcting his balance immediately when he tripped on a loose rock on the ground. With every step he took though, his eyes became more adjusted to the darkness and he started to trip with less frequency.

As they progressed even further into the tunnel, Naruto caught sight of flickering lights ahead, which indicated fire light. The line started to slowdown then and Naruto could finally start to catch his breath. The quick pace had been tough on his small body considering the abuse that he had just gone through.

The line inched forward slowly and Naruto began to hear screams of pain from the children ahead that were quickly cut off. At the same time, the smell of _something_ burning permeated the air and assaulted Naruto's nostrils.

He finally got close enough to see what was happening and he could not help but recoil in a combination of fear, disgust and shock. There were two men standing next to a brazier of burning coals in which several metal rods were plunged into. One man would read out a number and write something on a piece of paper that he held and the other men would take out the burning hot rods and place them on the right arm of a child until a number appeared on their skin.

The screams that he had heard earlier were due to the children screaming in pain from having their skin burnt away. The sudden stop in the screaming was because the man reading out the numbers would stretch out his hand and cuff the offending child hard on the head. The burning smell that Naruto had smelt earlier was the smell of burning _human flesh_.

The blond child gagged and would have vomited whatever food remained in his stomach onto the floor if not for the fact that he knew that such an act would displease the bad man stalking down the line. Displeasing the man would mean a whipping and he did not want that, so Naruto tried his best to hold it in.

Finally, much too soon for Naruto's liking, it was his turn to be branded like the other children before him. The man with the rods grabbed his right arm roughly while the other man intoned "Slave Number 94182."

Slave. Was that what he was now? Naruto had heard many things during his time as the invisible ghost of Konoha and the word 'slave' was one of them. He knew that terrible things happened to them but he did not know what _exactly_ happened to them. He wished he could be back with Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan back in the village.

That caused the image of the mutilated corpses of his adoptive grandparents along with the image of the desecrated village to flash into his mind. He would have started to scream in horror as image after image bombarded his fragile but all that was thrown out of the window when he suddenly felt pain beyond anything that he could imagine on his right arm.

Being stabbed by that bandit leader was as an ant bite compared to this. Naruto opened his mouth to begin screaming in pain but common sense kicked in then, telling him that all he would get for that was more pain. As such, he closed his mouth and gritted his teeth as the slaver continued to brand him.

Finally, after too long a time, the ordeal was finally over and done with. The chains were detached from his manacles and he was led to a cage where several other children already resided. He was shoved into the cage and the gate to the cage was immediately locked behind him.

Naruto looked over the other children in the cage that he was in and saw only three types of expressions; Anger, weariness and fear. None of these was exactly conducive for conversation and so he kept silent and simply walked over to an empty spot in the cage where he slumped down and let his exhaustion take over him. He soon fell into a fitful slumber.

* * *

He was woken up from his nightmares of the bandit attack by a boot to his ribs again. Having learnt his lesson from the previous day, Naruto quickly got up on his feet where the chains were attached to the manacles once again. Truthfully, despite how horrifying his nightmares were, Naruto did not know whether waking up was any better. His future looked bleak no matter how he thought about it.

The children in his cage were led to a gigantic metal cylinder with wooden spikes sticking out of it. The slaver in charge of his cage then instructed all of them to grab onto a wooden spike and then push in a clockwise direction. Naruto did not know what the adult meant by pushing in a clockwise direction. Thankfully, some of the other slaves had already moved to take up their positions as though they knew what to do and so Naruto simply mimicked them.

Even though there were close to twenty of them assigned to this task, it was still extremely hard work; far harder than anything else Naruto had done before. His muscles screamed in protest and perspiration flowed down his body in rivulets. Finally, he could take it no longer and pretended to be still pushing while he was actually resting and just walking normally. He tried to regulate his quick and harsh gasps into something resembling normal breathing more.

Suddenly, a whip lashed across his back. It came as an utter surprise to him and, unable to prepare for the pain, Naruto let out an involuntary scream, which earned him another lash across the back.

"Try to slack off and I'll whip you even harder, 94182!" the slaver snarled and Naruto quickly put his back into pushing the cylinder around.

Naruto was surprised that he had been caught so quickly. Were the other children such good actors? Or did they already know that this would happen to them? Now that Naruto thought about it, he realised that he had seen none of the children sharing his cage amongst the line of slaves that he had been attached to. Perhaps the reason why they knew what to do was that they had been slaves for a longer time than he had been? That made sense to Naruto.

Without a sun over him to use as a gauge, Naruto quickly lost track of time. He had no idea how long he had been working for but his body was close to its limit. His tongue hung out of his mouth, a dried, desiccated organ and it seemed like every drop of moisture was being sucked out of his body.

"Halt! Break! Queue up in front of me now!" the overseer shouted as he handed all of the slaves a cup of water. A cup was far from enough for Naruto, but he was not going to complain. Some was better than none. Naruto drank his water greedily, making sure to not spill even a drop of the precious liquid. This had to be the best tasting water that he had ever had! In the meantime, he sat down on the ground, giving his sore muscles a break.

The break ended far earlier than Naruto liked and he was put to work back at the metal cylinder. They had two more breaks before the overseer finally called it a day and brought all of them to a trough full of water and simply let them loose.

It looked like a trough that was originally meant for animals. Naruto might have thought it disgusting or demeaning to drink from it in the past but times were different now. It had _water_ in it. He moved eagerly towards and that was when he first experienced how vicious the other slaves could be.

The older and stronger kids rushed towards the trough, pushing everyone else out of the way before drinking greedily from the trough. From the lack of resistance that the other slaves showed, this was apparently a common occurrence. When the bullies were done, there was another mad race to the trough where those that were weaker or slower like Naruto were shunted off to the side again.

This process repeated itself until when Naruto finally got to the trough, there was barely any water in it while some other kids had drunk so much water that their stomachs almost looked bloated. Naruto bristled at the injustice of all of it but there was nothing he could do. The slavers obviously did not care and it was apparent that the bandits' rule of 'might made right' had passed on to their slaves as well.

They were brought back to their cages after that where it was time for 'dinner'. Dinner as a slave consisted of the slavers throwing several loaves of bread into the cage. Knowing what to expect now, Naruto rushed forward to grab at the bread but he was not the only one. Slaves that were in front of him brutally elbowed his face to make sure that he would never overtake them while the other children that were behind him either grabbed his shirt and pulled him back or simply hit the back of his head from their advantageous position.

At the end of the scuffle, Naruto lay slumped against the bars of his cage, bruises covering his body and his stomach growling at him, demanding food. The blond child patted his stomach, promising that he would do better the next day and feed it.

Naruto then fell asleep with an empty stomach, a pain-wracked body and a tormented mind.

* * *

The next day was even more torturous for Naruto. Having gotten no food the previous day at all, his body felt drained of strength. He tired more easily and his efforts slowed, which earned him many lashings from the overseer that day.

With his lack of strength and the numerous wounds on his body, Naruto naturally lost the race to the water trough and he returned to the cage knowing that he was in no state to fight for the food that night, not when he had additional thirst, wounds and fatigue affecting him that day. Nevertheless, he tried his best and got the same results. He ended up slumped against the bars of the cage.

On the third day of his slavery, something different happened in the morning. When the overseer came in to wake all of them up, there was one girl that would not get up no matter how much she was kicked or whipped. Everyone soon realised that it was not that she would not get up but rather the fact that she _could_ not get up. She was still alive but her breathing was weak. Naruto remembered her. She was one of the children that had failed to get any food or water as well.

The overseer grumbled as he hefted the girl up onto his shoulders while he called for another bandit to watch over Naruto's cage. Naruto surmised that while the slavers did not particularly care for their health, they did not want any of them dead, so they were probably going to try to revive the girl some way or another. He had no idea how they were going to do that though.

The rest of the day passed in a haze for Naruto. He felt light-headed and had difficulty orienting himself. His responses were dulled as well and he had gotten lashings for not responding immediately when he was called. His arms felt like lead and his legs felt like wet noodles. The overseer would suffer no slacking off though and so Naruto was forced to go at the same pace as the others.

When they were finally led back to the cage, it took all of Naruto's strength to not simply collapse at the door of the cage, where he would be beaten up by one of the older kids, and instead walk to the furthest end of the cage that was his 'spot'. He knew even without trying that he would not be able to get any dinner that night. He also knew that if he did not get any food that night, he was going to end up like the girl that had to be carried out. Naruto was tempted to let that happen. After all, they didn't want him to die, right? So they would probably try and revive him like they tried to revive the girl.

Naruto noted that the girl had not been returned to the cage yet. He had no idea how long it took to revive someone. Maybe one day was too short? He had another worry though. What if the slavers had tried, but failed to revive the girl? Would the same thing happen to him?

Just then, one of the bandits passed by the camp and tossed the loaves of bread into the cage again. As the bread flew through the air, Naruto's mind raced. If he could not get the bread tonight, would he _die_? That thought terrified him. Some part, deep down inside him, gibbered in fright at the thought of death. He didn't want to die, so he had to get the bread.

Time seemed to slow down for him as the bread continued to fly through the air. He had to get the bread so that he did not die. He had to get the bread.

The bread.

The bread.

That was all that Naruto focused on as he launched himself forward. His body was filled with vitality and strength that he had felt ever since he had been captured. He pushed the stragglers at the back away with ease as he continued forward, his eyes never wavering from his goal.

He sensed rather than saw another slave swing at him from his right. Naruto ducked down, grabbed hold of the assailant's arm, and pulled it towards him. He then threw the other kid with all his might at the other children in front of him. They fell down like dominoes. Naruto jumped onto the pile of human bodies, making sure to stomp down on the skulls of the kids that he had registered as being stronger and thus a threat to him.

He reached his goal with one more step but another slave was already there before him, a loaf in one hand already. Naruto _roared_ as he sprinted forward. The bread was his! His! How dare that stupid kid take it away from him!

The other kid's eyes widened in fear from the sudden aggression that Naruto was displaying and he attempted to punch the incoming blond child. Attempted was the keyword. Where before the older boy's fists were dizzyingly fast and as strong as steel, it now seemed as though the bully was pushing his arm through quicksand. Naruto brushed the arm away contemptuously as he stepped into the boy's personal face and gripped the boy's face with his hands. The blond boy then smashed the bully's head into the metal bars of the cage once. Twice. Thrice and then the boy finally stopped struggling underneath him.

Naruto then stepped back from his victim as he glared around himself, daring anyone to oppose him. None dared to. Satisfied that nobody was going to interfere with him, Naruto hunkered down near his prize and stuffed himself so full that he felt like vomiting.

The bread was stale, hard and bland. For some reason though, it was the most delicious thing he had ever eaten in his life. Naruto thought it was probably because he was so hungry that anything would taste nice. He was then reminded of several phrases that he had heard in Konoha. 'Revenge is sweet.' 'Victory is sweet.' As he bit down into his bread, Naruto could almost feel some sweetness in the bread. The people in Konoha were right. Victory and revenge _did_ taste sweet.

* * *

The next day began as the best day so far as a slave. With food in his stomach and thus energy in his body, toiling away at the metal cylinder was no longer as tiring, which in turn meant that he did not receive a single whip lash that day. When the day's work was over and they were led to the water trough, nobody dared to fight Naruto for the water. They clearly knew who the boss was after the previous night.

As such, he was the first to drink from the trough and that was the first time in almost a week that he was able to drink as much as he wanted. When he was finally done, he swaggered to the waiting area. Having such power over others made him feel incredibly good.

As he waited for the other slaves to be done, he surreptitiously eyed the bandit near him. The victory the previous night had given him confidence that he had never possessed. Before, he had thought of himself as helpless and thus unable to resist what was done to him.

Now though, he knew that he _could_ be strong. He had not forgotten what they had done to Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan along with the rest of the villagers. Revenge. That was a very nice word, in his opinion. He was not foolish enough to try to attack the bandits now though. Even as a four year old, hubris did not cloud his judgement so much that he thought he could actually beat an adult. Yet. The time would come. He just had to wait until he grew stronger.

When they returned to the cage, Naruto purposely sat down beside the gate to the cage as he stared at the previous of that spot, daring the older boy to challenge Naruto for the spot. In the end, the boy simply picked another spot, avoiding a conflict with the blond boy. Naruto could not help but grin savagely. He was the one in power now.

One of the bandits passed by and threw the regular meal into the cage. Naruto noted that just as with the water, nobody was making a move. Feeling cocky now, he sauntered over to the bread and bent down to pick it up. That was when he sensed something wrong.

Trusting his instincts, Naruto threw himself to the side, narrowly avoiding an overhand blow from one of the older kids. He immediately tried to get up but was kicked in the face by another slave. Naruto snarled and tried to grab onto the leg as it shot forward for another punt to the face but was hit by a kick to the back of his head by another boy instead. The blond boy struggled desperately, trying to fend off his assailants but it was to no avail. This time, they cooperated with each other, never letting up on the punishment on the small boy.

Unable to defend himself, Naruto eventually sunk into the dark pools of unconsciousness.

* * *

The next day, it seemed like everything had reverted back to the way it was. Naruto woke up with injuries and an empty stomach. The race for water had returned and Naruto was once again one of the last ones to be able to drink water. At dinnertime though, all of the older kids once again ganged up on Naruto, beating him up until he fell unconscious once again. He capitulated much more easily this time.

The following day, Naruto tried to remember how he had felt all while he toiled away at the metal cylinder. He tried to imagine the rush of power that he felt and focused intensely on how he had felt then but he received no sudden boost of strength. Feeling frustrated and desperate, Naruto recklessly charged ahead when it was time for water but was effortlessly defeated.

That night, the fight for the bread returned to being an all-out-melee. It seemed like the slaves had dismissed Naruto's one victory as being a fluke. The blond boy tried to take advantage of this but failed miserably. He soon found himself in a state that he was beginning to get very familiar with- hurting and hungry.

On the fourth day after his first victory, Naruto finally unlocked the secret to his mysterious power; or at least he thought he had. He had become stronger, but not as strong as the first time he had unlocked it and he had no idea why.

That day, he had been leaning against the bars of the cage while he watched the other slaves fight for the food. A spike of anger shot through him as he saw one of the bullies take a bite of delicious bread. It just wasn't fair! As his mind continued on this train of thought, his anger mounted until it was nearly intolerable.

It was then that he felt something strange in his body. He tried touching his stomach, where the strange _something_ was but nothing happened. When he thought about it though, it seemed to move a little. It was as though the strange something was like a pile of rubber and his thoughts were like a poke.

When he thought it about it, it was as if he had poked a pile of rubber, where a small indent would be made. When he stopped thinking about it though, it was similar to him no longer poking the rubber and it would return to its original shape.

He focused all of his attention on that strange something and tried to make it move with his thoughts. It was hard but it eventually _did_ move a little and warmth could be felt in the pits of his stomach. Encouraged by this, Naruto tried harder to move the strange thing more in his body, spreading it thinner so that it could reach every part of his body. As it spread across his body, Naruto could feel strength returning to his frail. No, not returning. He was feeling stronger than he had ever been, even before he had been captured by the bad men.

He stood up, unaware of the wide smile spreading across his lips as his eyes fixed on the piece of bread that one of the bullies was eating. With speed that no four year old should possess, Naruto sped across the cage and slammed his fist into the back of his target's head, knocking him unconscious instantly. Naruto immediately crammed as much bread as he could fit into his mouth as possible and whirled around, ready to face any threats.

Sure enough, the other bullies had now abandoned their meals and were slowly approaching Naruto. On some unspoken signal, all of them attacked Naruto at the same time and Naruto found himself fighting against superior numbers once again. Unlike the previous times, it was not a one-sided slaughter and Naruto was proud to say that he had taken down two of the bullies before he had been knocked unconscious.

* * *

The next few days passed with Naruto joining in the melee every day while experimenting with his newfound powers. He was always knocked at the end but that did not matter to him. At that point of time, the condition for victory was for him to get some food into his stomach. In regards to that, although Naruto lost sometimes, getting no food at all, he won most of the time. Every day became a fight for survival. Literally.

Naruto had also found a way to deal with the whippings. He discovered that after he started fighting regularly, his reflexes, along with his sensory awareness had improved by leaps and bounds. The swish of the overseer bringing his arm down told Naruto that the overseer was preparing to whip someone. A quick glance out of the side of his eyes allowed him to gauge the direction that the whip would travel in. Naruto would then subtly adjust his body such that the tip of the whip would land somewhere less painful, like the area of his back below the shoulder blades. While he still had to endure whippings like every other slave, he could at least minimise the pain and damage to himself, allowing him to fight better at night.

He slowly began to fall into a routine until it all changed one day.

* * *

He was in the middle of another slugfest- the daily fight for food. He kicked a boy in the crotch, causing the boy to double over in pain. This brought the boy into the perfect position for Naruto. Clasping his hands together, the blond child brought delivered a powerful hammer fist to the back of the boy's head, knocking him unconscious immediately.

Naruto immediately grabbed the bread that was in the boy's hand and, as was his habit, stuffed it unceremoniously into his mouth. He had barely finished doing this when another boy careened into him, sending him crashing to the ground. The impact was so great that Naruto would have spit out the bread in his mouth if not for much practice in holding food in his mouth while he fought.

Seeing that Naruto still had food in his mouth, the boy ruthlessly rained punches down on Naruto's face. Naruto stubbornly refused to give up his loot though and kept his mouth shut while he punched up at the other slave as well.

The other slave eventually grew frustrated at Naruto's obstinacy. Every second that the blond child had the food in his mouth was a second used to chew and swallow it! The slave slammed his fists down on Naruto's with all of his strength and the both of them could hear something crack. He did not stop there though and continued to pummel Naruto's broken rib cage.

Naruto started to panic as he tasted blood in his mouth. His strikes became wilder and more powerful, his punches fuelled by his fear but it was to no avail. The slave simply shrugged off the blows and continued on with his grisly work. His face broke out in a twisted smile as he felt blond slave's blows start to get weaker. Just a few more and the child would be knocked out. Or dead. Both worked for him. He was startled though when a fist that was impossibly strong suddenly crashed against his nose, causing him to fall backward.

* * *

Naruto had been choking on his own blood and his vision had started to darken. He was pretty sure that if something did not happen soon, he was going to die soon. He flailed at his assailant but that did nothing. He did not give up though. He continued to struggle, fighting to survive when it happened.

The strange something inside his body started to expand rapidly until it felt like his body was going to explode trying to contain it. Strength began to pour into his body and he could _feel_ himself healing while the pain in his chest disappeared. Naruto did not know what was going on but he was not going to let an opportunity like this slip past him.

A punch right in the boy's face sent Naruto's assailant flying backwards while he quickly got up on his feet. Looking down at the boy writhing on the ground while clutching his face, Naruto felt a surge of anger. This boy had tried to _kill_ him. That was unforgiveable.

With that thought, Naruto flung himself at his former assailant, inflicting the same damage that had been done to Naruto. The blond child attacked the head first, punching it repeatedly to make sure that the boy would be disoriented and unable to fight back properly before he moved on to the chest. Like the boy, Naruto did not stop when the loud crack resounded through the air. He did not stop until the boy had stopped moving.

Naruto stood up from the unmoving body, blood dripping from his fists as he glared balefully at the rest of the slaves, all of whom were looking at him warily.

Naruto knew that this would not be the last time that he would come close to dying in the daily melee. Especially not when he had just displayed overwhelming strength again. He knew that the older kids would gang up on him the next day when he was weaker. This time, he might even die. He had to stop that. Stop them. Yes, that was a good idea. Rather than waiting for them to attack him when he was weak, he should remove the threat now while he was strong.

Naruto launched himself at the nearest slave and began his assault.

* * *

It was pure chaos. Naruto lost track of how long he had fought for. He was a whirlwind of fists. No matter how many of the slaves threw themselves at him, he was never brought down. In fact, it seemed like he grew stronger with every punch that he threw. He mowed through the slaves as though he was cutting grass in Ojii-chan's yard. Naruto did not care whether they were young or old, weak or strong. He took them all out.

Eventually, he stood alone on a pile of unmoving bodies. Some were still alive, others were undoubtedly. One thing was clear though. There would be no one that could threaten him in this cage again.

The howl of victory and triumph resounded throughout the tunnels, scaring all of the children that cowered in their cages.

* * *

**A/N: I am going to attempt to pre-empt some comments that I predict will be directed at me. As for how Naruto is suddenly so strong, I would first like to clarify that he has not grown any stronger, but rather the fact that the power scale between the children that he is fighting and the bandit leader is simply too large.**

**Although Naruto is strong enough to easily take out a group of 7-10 year old children (which are the ages of the slaves) when enough of the Kyuubi chakra is running through him, it's an entirely different matter when attempting to fight an experienced **_**adult**_** bandit.**

**Hope that clarified matters for some of you.**

**Until next time! Please do review! =D**


	4. Chapter 4 Giuoco Piano

**Winds of Change Chapter Four- Giuoco Piano**

**A/N: So, here is chapter four of WOC. Once again, there are several issues that I wish to address.**

**Firstly, I realise that I have been using the word 'blonde' for Naruto ever since ANL. I have since corrected this error for WOC but I'm afraid the process of editing ANL will take far longer. Combing through over 400k words is no easy feat _**

**I apologise for this grievous mistake. I grew up in a country where everybody has black hair and black eyes and we generally do not use terms that describe people with different hair colour.**

**For those who have not realised the mistake, blonde is generally used for females while blond is used for males. From what I gather, it is not interchangeable.**

**Secondly, I will now give the analysis for the previous chapter's title of 'Gambit'.**

**In chess, a gambit is a move or a series of manoeuvres where a player sacrifices a piece or an advantageous position in order to secure an even better position or to take out an opponent's strong piece. Of course, if the gambit fails, the player is usually left in dire straits.**

**In the previous chapter, Naruto gambled on the fact that his mysterious power (which is actually the Kyuubi's chakra for those who have not realised it yet) would allow him to fight on equal grounds with the other slaves. The price for failure would have been death or severe injuries.**

**He also gambled on the fact that he could control the power and not have it blow up in his face when he first tried to manipulate the Kyuubi's chakra.**

**More than that though, the ultimate sacrifice, which is the essence of a gambit, was that he had given up his humanity in the hopes of an easier future.**

**I shall now leave you with this and allow you to read the chapter. Enjoy.**

* * *

_The one person that can be said to have had the greatest influence on Fuujin Kiri would be the man known as Tokugawa Ieyasu, though he was more commonly known as Kagutsuchi Ieyasu in deference to his peerless skill with fire jutsu. Whether he was Fuujin Kiri's enemy or ally, the both of them pushed each other to greater heights. Sources have also stated that it was Ieyasu himself who gave birth to Fuujin Kiri's dream, which led him to his legendary battles. Regardless of whether that was true or not, the fact remains that without the presence of Tokugawa Ieyasu, it can be said that the man we know as Fuujin Kiri would probably not have existed._

_-Unknown, Chronicles of a Legend, Year 214 AS, Chapter three._

* * *

The trail had suddenly ended in the Forest of Death but Sarutobi did not give up. There were ways to track a person down other than directly following their trail. Thankfully, it did not seem like Naruto had been kidnapped.

After the initial search had turned up unsuccessful, the Sandaime had called up all of his ANBU that were in the village on the day that Naruto had gone missing to see if any of them could remember anything about the Jinchuuriki.

It was then that Owl had stepped to say that he had spotted the boy being chased by a few bullies and had reported the incident but had then continued patrolling as per his orders. The squad commander immediately confirmed this, trying to make sure that any blame would fall on him as the one that had issued the order rather than Owl who was innocent in all of this.

The Sandaime was not so petty as to blame his ANBU for this mishap though. While everyone could see that it had been a mistake not to pursue the boy in hindsight, there was no way anyone could have predicted the strange turn of events. The Hokage knew that if he had been in the squad captain's shoes, he would have issued the same orders. There were far more important things to do than blame his elite for a mistake that was not their fault.

Another quick trip to the Uchiha Military Police HQ got him all the records they had of misbehaving on the day that Naruto had gone missing. With Owl beside him, the Sandaime quickly identified and tracked down the two bullies that had chased Naruto down the streets.

An hour later, the Sandaime was frowning in his office while the two miscreants in front of him stammered their way through their account of the incident. Their account corroborated the ANBU's account of what they had found. Naruto had indeed managed to find his way into TG 44 where he had disappeared.

At least the chances of kidnap were very unlikely. It was not impossible, but the possibility of that happening was so slim that it was next to impossible. It would have taken an extremely skilled operative to slip past the multitude of ANBU patrolling not just within the Konoha, but the area around the village as well. That operative would then have to enter the most dangerous sector of TG 44 and leave no tracks there while using minimal chakra in over to avoid detection by the ANBU. The operative would then have to find Naruto within that death trap and escape without detection once again. There was also the fact that if the operative's aim had been to kidnap Naruto, he or she would have to have prior knowledge that Naruto would somehow end up in TG 44 which spoke of skills in manipulation that could be considered supernatural even in the world that they lived in.

Of course, there _were_ people with the skills and motives to pull that off but seeing as the majority of them had been in the meeting with him; the chances of kidnap became even less likely.

Their main priority now then was to locate Naruto, wherever he was. Even though he was a four-year-old child, the Sarutobi had no doubt that if he had somehow managed to escape TG 44, then Naruto was still alive. The Bijuu that was sealed inside him had a vested interest in keeping its host alive, after all.

To that end, the Sandaime contacted one of his students that had remained loyal to Konoha. The Hokage knew that Jiraiya had set up a budding spy network of sorts to keep tabs on his erstwhile teammate. Sarutobi had let his student as he wished as long as it was not detrimental to Konoha's welfare. He had gone far and above in his duty to the village and if a little break was what he wanted, how could Sarutobi deny him? Now though, the situation was dire and he had no choice but to take control of that spy network to help to look for Naruto.

Along with his student's spy network, the Sandaime sent whatever ANBU he could spare to scour the entirety of Hi no Kuni for any hints of Naruto's whereabouts.

Even with such an extensive network, it still took some time before he got a lead on Naruto's location. He was surprised that the little blond child could have gotten as far as Cha no Kuni but the Sandaime was thankful for the small miracles that he received. If it were any other country, he would have to be far more cautious in how he proceeded but In Cha no Kuni where the Daimyo was too terrified of the Hidden Villages to make a peep, Konoha basically had free reign in whatever they wanted to do in Cha no Kuni.

As he sent out his next orders, Sarutobi idly filled a pipe with tobacco and inhaled deeply. It was time for him to wage a different kind of battle. One did not rule as a Kage in any village for such a long time as he had without learning more about politics than one cared to. The Uchiha and the secretaries probably thought that they were safe but he was going to slay them with the very same sword that they had wielded against him.

He was no man's fool.

* * *

The underground bandit camp was like an ant's nest as bandits rushed around in the aftermath of Naruto's rampage. All work had been cancelled that day and the slaves were locked up in their cages while the bandit leaders met to decide on their course of action. That left no one to handle the necessities that the slaves had always taken care of like drawing water and working the power generator that 94182's cage had been in charge of before the little kid had killed over half of his cage mates while the other half were left near dead.

"Crazy shit this is." One bandit mumbled as he pulled up the bucket of water from the underground stream that they had found in the early days of creating the hideout.

"You said. Never thought it would happen in my lifetime." Another bandit replied as he too pulled up a bucket of water. Without the slaves drawing water, it was up to the grunts to do the work until everything was settled. He honestly did not know why _all_ the slaves had to be locked up though. After all, it was just one idiot that had caused this mess.

"You think we'll keep using the system?"

The system was the bandits' way of keeping the slaves in line. By never regulating the food or water that the slaves got, common sense dictated that fights would break out between the slaves as the greedy ones would want more. The bandits never did anything to stop this and instead subtly encouraged this. Since the slaves were focused on fighting one another for food and water, the thought of fighting the bandits en masse never crossed their minds. The seeds for rebellion were never even given the ground to be sown in.

"No idea." The other bandit replied. "Everything's up to the bosses, even what happens to the kid from now on."

* * *

In another part of the cave, the leaders of the bandits had gathered together in a meeting to discuss their next course of action. In other words, the Big Boss had called all of his group leaders together and they were now shouting at each other to make their point heard.

"Just kill that bugger and be done with it already!"

"Are you stupid? He killed almost ten slaves at four years old! He'd be invincible if we just trained him up a little and brought him along at raids!"

"Like hell I'd trust a psychotic bastard like that behind my back on a raid" Masashi interjected into the quarrel between the two leaders.

"Like you're one to speak about being psychotic." Another bandit scoffed. "Although I do agree that the kid is too crazy. Kill him or sell him, just don't put in my group."

"Sell him? Who'd buy him? One look in his eyes would scare any of those rich wimps running away with shit shooting out his ass! Not even a mercenary group would take someone like him. Only the crazies in Kiri would want him."

That last sentence caused all of the bandit leaders to pause as the same thought ran through all of their heads. Finally, the Big Boss spoke.

"Anyone here has contacts with Kiri?"

'I do." The leader who had first advocated killing Naruto raised his hand.

"Good. So here's the plan. We keep him till he's like eight or so, and then sell him to Kiri. I bet the little bugger will be glad to be back home around all the crazies!"

All of them shared a laugh at this before one of them raised another question.

"Do we keep using the system?"

"Keep using it. Only one idiot's done this so far. If it happens again then maybe I'll think changing it. Oh and toss the little psycho into the troublemaker's cage. That 74178. It'll be fun to watch, at least!"

Another round of laughter broke up before all the bandits went back to their own business, the meeting done.

* * *

Naruto did not sleep after his rampage. His rage had soon left him, along with his mysterious power. His body felt like there were mountains tied to every limb. He longed to lie down and sleep but he did not, for there was nowhere to sleep. Still bodies, both dead and alive, littered the floor and he did not have the energy to move them, or the inclination to sleep on the bodies so he remained standing, staring at the bodies before him.

His hands and feet felt sticky and quite uncomfortable as the blood that was on them dried off. The blond boy cocked his head to the side. No matter how he looked at it, this scene looked like one that came straight out of the village's attack, with bodies littering the floor and blood oozing out everywhere. Why then, did he feel _nothing_?

In the stories that the matron told, the heroes only killed the evil demons. Only bad people killed other people, and it was bad to be a bad person. Naruto was pretty sure the other children were not evil demons. They had no horns, no tails and did not breathe fire or eat children. No, he was pretty sure they ate bread, just like him. That was why they had fought, after all.

So, Naruto concluded, they were just children like him. That meant that he was a bad person, because he had killed other people. Naruto cocked his head to the other side. He still felt nothing at the thought of that.

Wasn't he supposed to feel sad that people had died? Or feel sad that he had become a bad person? But then, only good people felt sad because bad things happened. Bad people were happy when they did bad things. However, Naruto did not feel happy either. It was very strange. He knew he was supposed to feel _something_.

And so he remained standing, staring at the corpses as he tried to figure out the answer to this puzzle. He was still in the same position when the slaver came in the next morning to move him to never cage. Naruto never resisted, his focus still on the mystery. Eventually, he remembered that the person dragging him down the tunnels was a bandit- a bad person. Perhaps he would be able to help!

Naruto moved forward and tugged on the bandit's hand until he was sure he had the man's attention, before he asked his question.

"Neh mister. When you kill people like I just did, do you feel happy?" The boy's voice was cracked and hoarse from disuse, which added to the creepiness of the entire situation.

The bandit stared down incredulously at the blond boy as he processed the question. He interpreted the question wrongly though and thought that the boy felt happy that he had killed his cage mates. He was a bandit and had done some pretty sick things himself but a four-year-old boy should _not_ be feeling happy that he had killed, for God's sake!

Thankfully, they were already at 94182's new cage and roughly pushed him in and locked it before he stalked away.

"Hey mister! You never answered my question!"

The bandit barely managed to suppress a shudder as he walked away with quicker steps. This was seriously sick.

Naruto looked at his new cage mates. Just like his previous cage mates, all of them seemed wary of the newcomer. The last time, he had been scared and tired from all the pain and had just ignored them. Maybe he should try something different this time? He was about to speak up and introduce himself when the gates of the cage swung open as a slaver walked in and started to attach the chains to their manacles.

Damn. It seemed like introductions would have to wait until after all their work was done. The slavers did not like the slaves to talk during work and often rewarded chatter with harsh lashes of the whip.

As the slaver was attaching the chains to Naruto's manacles, he caught sight of the numbers branded on his right and could not help but flinch slightly. The blond child caught this movement though and took it as recognition for who he was.

For so long, Naruto had been _just another_ slave that was ignored unless he was in the way. It reminded him of his time in Konoha and that was hard to get used to after all the attention that Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan had lavished on him. Now though, even though it was a bad person, he had _recognised_ Naruto. It was still better than nothing. Naruto thus tried to show his gratitude by smiling warmly at the bandit.

Or at least he thought that he had smiled warmly. What the bandit saw was a feral snarl that just made him move away faster. Bandits were cowards by nature and his cowardly instinct was telling him to 'Get the fuck away from that fucking creepy psycho'.

* * *

Naruto realised after some time that the slaves from his cage were not walking to the metal cylinder that he had worked at previously. Although the underground tunnels wove and twisted together to form a labyrinth, Naruto had developed a keen sense of direction from his many exploration adventures in Konoha.

He knew that not all slaves did the same thing. After all, someone _had_ to go and get the water and other things like that and the slavers were not going to do the menial chores when they had slaves around. While he had known it in his subconscious, Naruto had never spent much time thinking about it. He had been more preoccupied with thoughts of survival then. Now though, since he had time, he wondered what he was going to do later, and what jobs the other slaves did.

The entire procession soon stopped at the edge of what could be called an underground cliff where the slaver moved to unshackle them. After that though, they did nothing but stand around and wait for _something_ to happen. Feeling bored and slightly restless, Naruto decided to examine the wooden contraption that jutted out of the ledge.

If Naruto had to compare it to something, he supposed it would be similar to the device that the construction workers in Konoha would use when they wanted to go high up. He wondered if they were supposed to wait for the lift so they could go down or if there were people that were sending things up that was part of their job.

The blond child poked his head over the edge to see how deep the chasm was only to retract his head quickly. It was so deep that he could see nothing but darkness. It reminded him of the nightmares that he still had sometimes and honestly, his life was enough of a living nightmare that he did not need to add one more nightmare to it.

After some time, Naruto heard the distant sound of something creaking and surmised that the lift was coming up. He was not the only one had heard that and the slaver was soon cracking his whip to get the slaves to stand up quickly.

The lift soon arrived and on the wooden platform were bags that were almost as large as he was. The other slaves trudged forward and started to move the bags. Those that were stronger lifted them up and carried the bags on their shoulders or bags while those that were weaker dragged the bag along the ground.

Naruto soon got the idea and moved to a bag of his own only to find it too heavy for him to lift. The girls were sharing the burden by having two to three girls carry a bag each but Naruto somehow doubted that he would be allowed to do the same. Besides, he was a _boy_. He did not need help like a _girl_.

He had another trick up his sleeve though. He had that mysterious power of his. With his mysterious power, Naruto was able to start dragging the bag on the ground though he did not have enough strength to lift it up. He supposed that he would be able to lift up the bag only if he went into what he called his 'Level 2 mode'.

Once all the bags were cleared from the platform, the slaver walked over to the lift and tugged sharply on the rope several times whereupon the lift started to descend to the lower level. Upon hearing the crack of the whip, the children started to carry or drag their bags to their next destination.

The next destination turned out to be another lift, only this one was going up. The slaves loaded their bags onto the lift, and then split into two groups to pull at the ropes on either side of the lift to move it upwards.

Once the bags were delivered to their destination, the slaves were led back to the starting point where bags were already waiting for them. They quickly pulled the bags off, knowing that the slaves at the bottom had to keep the lift afloat until all the bags had been removed.

The process was repeated several times until when they returned to the lift, all that was on the lift was a small black box that the slaver picked up. When they had delivered the black box, the children were led to a water trough that was similar to the one that he had drunk from in the past. Naruto concluded that the black box meant that there were no bags that were coming up.

* * *

When Naruto got to the water trough, he was disappointed. He had been hoping that fighting for water and food only happened in his cage. From the way the children gave way to the older slaves without fighting, he knew that the hierarchy had already been established.

He did not bother fighting for the water this time though. He knew that were would always be _some_ water left for the last group, even if it was quite little and he had gotten water from the water breaks today so he did not _need_ the extra water today. His muscles were extremely sore, as the job today had used different muscles. He would save every bit of energy that he had for the fight at dinner tonight. If he managed to win tonight and show himself off as powerful enough, perhaps he would be able to be one of the first drinkers the next day as well.

When Naruto finally got to the water trough, he was pleasantly surprised to find that quite a bit of water remained. There was enough for him and the others of the last group to quench their thirst fully. He would be able to fight better tonight if he was not as thirsty. The blond boy was thankful for the small miracles that happened in his otherwise hellish life.

* * *

The moment all the slaves returned to their cages, Naruto prepared for the approaching fight. He had stopped using his mysterious power the moment work had ended. After some experimentation with his mysterious power, he found that he tended to hurt inside his body if he used it for a long period of time.

He was pretty sure that he had rested long enough for it not to hurt in the middle of a fight like what had happened in the past. The blond slave had been trounced soundly that night.

He also found that that the boost in strength did not take place immediately, but instead took a few seconds before he was fully boosted up. Timing was crucial then if he wanted to activate his power at the exact moment. Naruto preferred not to take such a risk though. He could tolerate a few seconds of pain if push came to shove.

He then moved to the back of the cage and waited for the slavers to arrive with dinner. While it would have been easier to get the bread if he sat at the front of the cage, he had realised that most of the slaves tended to ignore the small little kid that was huddled at the back of the cage. They immediately assumed that the child was going to sit out of the fight.

Naruto would make use of this misconception to his advantage. The moment the fight started, he would target the strongest of the slaves in the cage and take him out quickly with the element of surprise on his side. The others would be shocked by the sudden action, which would allow him to stuff some bread into his bread and thus achieve his victory.

Naruto's ears twitched as they picked up the sound of approaching footsteps. He immediately started to push and prod at his mysterious power, making sure that it reached every part of his body while he subtly shifted his position into one that would allow him to dash forward with greater ease.

Naruto was already flying forward the moment the bread left the slaver's hand. He pushed the slaves in his way aside, heedless of the cries of pain as their heads impacted against the hard ground or the steel cage bars. His only concern now was to get some bread into him before it was all taken away from him.

That was when he heard an older boy shout out "Damn it! He's one of them! Pin him down!"

Naruto snarled when he heard the shout. He did not know what the boy meant by 'one of them' but he understood the rest of the words well enough. They were going to gang up on the new outsider to prevent him from getting any bread. Too bad for them. He was not going to give up so easily!

Naruto jumped into the air, his fingers mere inches away from grabbing onto a loaf of bread when he felt fingers encircling one of his ankles. He crashed down to the floor hard, denied his prize when it had been so close to him. The blond child kicked furiously with his other leg, attempting to smash the face of the slave who had caught hold of his leg only for the kicking leg to be captured by another slave.

He tried to twist his body around so that he could attack them with his fists but another slave sat down on his back, preventing him from moving his torso. Naruto was not about to give up so easily even though almost all of his body had been trapped. He still had his arms. He flailed his arms behind him wildly, trying to hit the boy that was sitting on him only for another boys to grab hold of his arms and keep them still.

What the hell? Were they so determined to stop a newbie from getting some food that _five_ of them were willing to work together? Seriously? Well, they had not covered his mouth yet so he started cursing at them.

"God damned motherfucking maggots! You better watch out when you're shitting 'cause you'll be bleeding from your asshole thanks to the humping that you do every night!"

Being exposed to the crass adults that the bandits were had greatly expanded Naruto's vocabulary of curses. Of course, he barely understood what the words meant but the fact that he knew that they were bad words was enough for Naruto to recite them ad verbatim. After all, it had been proved earlier that Naruto was not stupid. He was just uninterested in learning. But whatever could motivate a four-year-old boy to learn more than learning bad words?

"Yo mama was a bitch in heat and your dad was a horny mountain goat and mmplrgh-" Naruto choked as something was stuffed into his mouth. He reflexively bit down, hoping that some idiot had stuff his hand into his mouth only to bite into something with the consistency of...bread? The more he chewed, the more convinced that it was bread that in his mouth but it simply did not make sense.

"Alright, I think you guys can get up now. He seems to have cooled off a little." One boy said. Naruto distantly recognised the voice as the one that had initially shouted for the other slaves to pin him down.

Once he was freed, Naruto quickly shot up, on his guard while his eyes darted around the cage. To his surprise, he saw one boy holding onto all the loaves of bread in his hand and splitting them up to the slaves in the cage.

The boy spotted Naruto looking at him and spoke without pausing in his work.

"Surprised? I suppose you would be. As far as I know, we're the only cage that does this."

"Huh?" was Naruto's intelligent reply.

"I know how all the slaves in the other cages fight each other for food and water but we don't do that here." The boy paused as he bit into his own share of the bread, having distributed the bread equally among all the slaves.

"It's true that some of us will not get all that we need if we share the bread but at least everyone gets something. Why should we fight each other because of our greed?

Here, in this hell on earth, the closest things that we have to family are our cage mates. We work together, sleep together, eat together, suffer together and depend on each other. Is that not what family is?

I believe that family looks after each other, and that is why I am doing this. I hope you will join us as well, newcomer."

Naruto was officially confused. It did not make sense to him. It just did not add up.

"But...the water..."

"Ah! I suppose we must have left the wrong impression on you. All of us take turns drinking from the trough and make sure that there is enough water left for the rest. We rotate who drinks first every day. Today is the day that the eldest drink first. Tomorrow, the youngest will drink first and the cycle will repeat. This makes it fairer for everyone, in my opinion.

I also apologise for our rough treatment of you earlier. I hope we did not injure you too much?"

Naruto shook his head at that while he puffed his cheat out slightly. It would take _much_ more than that to injure him. He was tough, after all.

"Excellent! I hope that we will be able to start on a clean slate. It would please me if you would cooperate with us. Will you work together with us?"

There was no need for even a second's thought. Not having to fight everyday to survive had been a pipedream for him for so long. It was a foregone conclusion that he would accept the offer. The blond child nodded eagerly, indicating his acceptance of the offer.

"Great!" the leader (for that was definitely what he was, in Naruto's opinion) smiled.

The leader then stretched out his hand towards Naruto. "I am Matsudaira Takechiyo. It's nice to meet you. So, what is your name?"

Name? Naruto cocked an eyebrow at that.

He was very proud of his eyebrow cock. He had seen someone doing it on the TV one day and had spent hours in front of a mirror trying to perfect is eyebrow cock and had finally done it.

But, back on the topic. What was the point of a name when they were slaves and they were only called by their numbers? It was stupid. There was, of course, a much more tactful way to say it then Naruto had thought it.

"You're stupid. We're slaves. No need for names." The blond child stated.

Naruto was never really one for tact.

"No need for names?" Takechiyo all but shouted as he grabbed Naruto by the shoulders. The older seemed to be really incensed and Naruto wondered if he was going to be hit when Takechiyo took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

"I'm sorry about that. It happens whenever I see that _they_ have succeeded in their plans." The venom with which Takechiyo had spat out the word 'they' left no doubt as who he had been referring to.

"There is a need for names because that is one of the things that make us human. They burn these numbers onto our arms as though they are branding cattle. They lead us around with chains like we are dogs. They make us drink water from a container that is normally used by beasts of burden. They make us fight for food amongst ourselves like uncivilised barbarians. They are breaking us down bit by bit, making us less than human.

That is why remembering and using our names is important. It reminds of us who we were. It reminds us that there is a better world out there than this hell. It makes us _human_."

Naruto was stunned as he gaped at the older boy in awe. He did not look very much older than Naruto himself but Takechiyo gave off an aura that compelled people to listen to him. The blond child was utterly swept away by his words. Naruto could see now why the other slaves listened and obeyed the older boy. It was simply hard not to.

"Uzumaki Naruto. That's my name." Naruto declared.

Takechiyo broke out into an infectious grin as he pulled the younger boy forward into a one-armed hug.

"Welcome to the family, Naruto-san."

Family, huh. That was a nice word. Naruto could live with that.

* * *

Over the next few nights, Naruto often stayed up late into the night to talk with Takechiyo about anything and everything. The older boy did not mind the questions as other older kids tended to. Instead, he seemed to welcome them and seemed to truly appreciate Naruto's company. He found the younger boy's company pleasing, as he seemed to have a different perspective from other people.

Takechiyo knew that there were several things that Naruto had not told him like the circumstances in which Naruto had been transferred to their cage. He had heard whispers among the bandits when the adults thought that all the children were asleep. He had heard of how one small little kid had massacred almost all the other slaves in his cage.

He swept his hand through his black hair as he remembered the expression on the blond boy's face when he had attacked them for food. It had not been the face of an animal but rather the savage snarl of a demon. There was also the fact that the slaver that was in charge of them always seemed to flinch a little when Naruto got close to him or how he avoided antagonising Naruto too much. The blond still got his fair share of beatings but they had seemed more for show than for actual damage to Takechiyo.

Takechiyo was no fool. He had quickly put the pieces of the puzzle together and concluded that the Naruto had been the one that all the slavers had been talking about. Even so, it was hard to reconcile the young, cheerful boy with the image of a raving psychopath.

His black eyes roved over the sleeping form of the young boy, noting the pinched look on his face that denoted a nightmare. For as long as Takechiyo had known the boy, he had always slept with that look on his face. Sometimes, the blond child would jerk awake in a loud gasp as the nightmares got too much for him. Takechiyo always pretended to be asleep when that happened. If Naruto wanted to talk about his nightmares, the young boy would have approached him already. Until that happened, he was content to leave it be.

Everyone here had suffered in some way or another before they had become a slave. Some suffered more than others had. He did not have evidence of it, but Takechiyo was sure that Naruto had suffered more than anyone else here had.

Ever since the first day when they had explained their own system, Naruto had never fought with the others for food. In fact, Takechiyo had even caught Naruto giving some of his bread to Yuffie-chan, a girl that was three years younger than he was and was quite frail physically. That did not really fit into Takechiyo's image of an amoral killer. Naruto was a good kid, really. He was just a little...damaged. That sounded right.

Takechiyo stroked the younger boy's hair, hoping that the comforting gesture that his mother always did for him would help to comfort the boy a little in his sleep. It was bad enough that their waking days were torturous. Their sleep should not be hellish either.

* * *

Naruto learnt a lot about Takechiyo's past and understood a little about why Takechiyo seemed so much wiser than the other children did now.

Takechiyo was eight years old this year and he was captured by the bandits two years ago. Before that, he had been the scion of the Matsudaira clan, which was one of the major clans that provided samurai for the Daimyo in Cha no Kuni.

Contrary to Naruto's belief, samurai did not spend all day and night since their birth learning how to swing a sword and save princesses while fighting off dragons. The destruction of one of his childhood dreams had been very painful for him. The thought of a clan intrigued him though, especially when Takechiyo went into detail about his clan on Naruto's insistence.

The thought of having hundreds of people that were related to you living in the same castle was an alien concept to him. Just living with Ojii-chan and Obaa-chan had been a large enough family for him. He truly wondered what it would be like to have a family that had a hundred members. The ache in his heart prompted him to turn the topic in another direction.

Apparently, the son of a samurai lord had to learn many more things than just the art of Kenjutsu. The first thing that was drilled into Takechiyo was the concept of honour and Bushido- the way of the warrior.

Takechiyo had waxed eloquently about honour and Bushido but Naruto remained unconvinced about them, though he did not voice his thoughts out. If Takechiyo had been so angry when he had mentioned the pointlessness of names, Naruto did not dare to imagine what the older boy would be like if he insulted his precious doctrines to his face.

Naruto wondered if it was because of the different places that they had grown up in. Takechiyo had grown up in a clan of samurai where they literally placed death before dishonour. On the other hand, Naruto had grown up in Konoha- a shinobi village.

While the stories told in Konoha still involved grand adventures and rescuing princesses, the majority of the stories lauded the hero who sneaked into the base and assassinated the enemy leader rather than the fool who fought alone against a hundred men and died without achieving anything.

Takechiyo also spoke about the other education that he had gone through like Arithmetic, Calligraphy and economics, amongst others, although his education had been cut short.

Apparently, the Matsudaira clan and the Imagawa clan had been long allies and one of their common practices was to send their heir over to the other clan at the age of six to experience how the other clan lived their life.

Takechiyo had been en route to the castle of the Imagawa clan when his entourage had been attacked. His father had purposely tried to make the entourage as small and unnoticeable possible in order to avoid tempting the bandits. Unfortunately, that ruse had failed. Takechiyo said that he suspected foul play but had no idea who could be responsible for it.

Aside from his life, Takechiyo also told Naruto about the world outside that Naruto had never really experienced. Yuffie, who had grown close to Naruto and Takechiyo, often joined them in such talks, contributing whatever she could.

In his previous cage, Naruto had learnt how to survive. Now, he would learn how to live.

* * *

**A/N: And that is the end of the chapter. It's less dark this chapter and some might feel that nothing much is happening in this chapter but believe me when I say it is necessary. This chapter can be considered to be the foundation for the upcoming chapters.**

**I also left plenty of hints scattered throughout the chapter so have fun looking for them and deciphering them.**

**Until next time! Please do leave a review if you enjoyed it! **


	5. Chapter 5 Scholar's Mate

**Winds of Change Chapter 5- Scholar's Mate**

**A/N: This chapter took much longer than the previous chapters because things got busier for me. I sincerely apologise for that. Unfortunately, I do not think I will be able to upload a new chapter every five days like I used to. I will, however, endeavour to at least make it once every ten days.**

**I will now go into the title analysis for Chapter 4- Giuoco Piano**

**For those who are not as well-versed in chess, The Giuoco Piano is one of many openings that chess players use. **

**Its main characteristics are how it places pressure on the F7 square but never actually initiates a major attack until much later in the game. In fact, it focuses more on development of pieces with little exchanges taking place, which is why it has earned the nickname of 'the quiet game' as well.**

**This ties in with what happened in the previous chapter as there was very little action going on but rather a lot of quiet development.**

**Another thing to note is that the Giuoco Piano is a variant of the Italian Game, where very aggressive moves are often made, like the Evans Gambit.**

**This reflects the development of the story, as Naruto started out very aggressively in the slave cages but then mellowed out and became far less aggressive in the new cage.**

**And now, on to the story.**

* * *

_Once upon a time, there was an eagle hatchling that was very curious. It would always go to the edge of the nest that it was born in and peer down, wondering about the world beyond the nest. The mother eagle always told the hatchling to not do that, as it was dangerous, but the hatchling never listened._

_One day, a strong wind struck when the hatchling was at the edge of the next once more. The little eagle hatchling was sent tumbling over the edge of the nest and rolled all the way down the mountains and into the forests below it._

_The little hatchling lay there in pain and cried for its mother, but the mother eagle was too far away to hear its baby's voice._

_Something else did though._

_A tiger cub that had recently lost its parents to human hunters heard the cry for help and found the eagle hatchling. The hatchling reminded the cub of itself and so instead of eating the little eagle, the tiger cub went into the forests to search for plants that could heal the hatchling._

_The eagle hatchling soon healed thanks to the plants that the tiger cub. The two animals soon became best friends. They were always together, whether they were searching for food or sleeping at night._

_The tiger cub often asked its best friend why it did not fly like the other birds it had seen but the little eagle always replied saying that he did not know how to._

_One day, the two animals came upon a baby rabbit whose mother had been eaten. They invited the rabbit to join their group and the three animal orphans were the happiest animals in the forest._

_However, something happened that destroyed their happiness. As they were playing in a clearing one day, some large eagles, far larger than the hatchling's mother had been, swooped down and took the tiger cub and the baby rabbit away. The eagle hatchling was left alone because it was so small._

_It looked up at the sky and cried because it wanted its friends back but could not chase after them. The hatchling jumped up and down, flapping its tiny wings repeatedly but it could never fly. Normally, the hatchling would have given up by now but this time, its friends were in dangerous and it kept trying, and trying until it eventually managed to fly and chased after the large eagles who had taken his friends away._

_-First half of the tale of 'The Eagle who learnt to fly'_

* * *

The Sandaime's first retaliatory action was to throw the two bullies that had harassed Naruto into jail. It was a relatively easy task to do. After all, the two bullies had after all endangered a civilian and engineered a situation where said situation had gone missing from the village.

Not a single soul opposed this action. The shinobi simply did care enough about matters that did not affect while the civilians knew better than to protest to such an act. After all, if they protested, it simply gave precedent to future cases where civilians being endangered could be simply swept away. Any dislike or hatred for a small little boy was overwhelmed by their own selfishness and self-preservation instincts

Sarutobi's next target was the clerks who had purposefully misfiled the matron's report. For this next task, he chose to do the dirty work himself instead of letting his ANBU handle it. After all, there was the saying 'Two can keep a secret if one is dead.' While paranoia was up Danzo's alley more than it was his, one did not grow to be old and wizened as a shinobi by being careless.

On one of the lunch breaks, the Sandaime slipped into the office of the clerks and rearranged certain pieces of paperwork as he saw fit, and then exited quickly. Nobody saw him. Nobody even had the slight thought that someone had entered the office. The nickname of Shinobi no Kami was not idly given.

The Hokage did not have to wait long for his meddling to bear fruit.

* * *

Two days later, he had several prominent members of the civilian sector seated in front of him.

"Sandaime-sama. I must say that this is a grievous mistake made by the bureaucrats and it will cost not just us civilians, but the entire village as a whole. Something has to be done." One of them proclaimed passionately.

"Indeed. Unfortunately, the sad fact is that while the paperwork filed was not sent to the intended recipients, the paperwork was _technically_ correct and as precedents have shown, my hands are tied in this issue. As much as I want to offer my aid, there is simply nothing that I can do."

"Ah yes, the issue with Uzumaki-san. That was such a horrid debacle. Has the poor child been found yet?"

"The search for Naruto-kun is still ongoing. Unfortunately, not many resources can be spared for the search effort considering who he is." The Sandaime replied.

"Why that simply cannot do! We will do our utmost best to ensure that Uzumaki-san is brought back as quickly as possible. In fact, I was thinking earlier of donating a sum of money to the search effort. With your support as well, I am sure that matters will proceed more smoothly, Hokage-sama."

"Thank you for your cooperation, Akizawa-san. It touches me greatly that there are people with such big hearts in Konoha. The Will of Fire burns brightly even amongst the civilians, it seems." The Hokage said as he smiled at them.

He then put his hands together in a gesture of shock, seeming as though he had just remembered or realised something.

"Ah! If we clear the obstruction for Naruto-kun's case, then perhaps we could also settle the matter of your tragic misfiling!"

The civilians perked up, smiles blossoming across their faces as they reached forward to shake the Hokage's hand.

"That would be excellent, Hokage-sama! Thank you for your time and I do hope that the search for Uzumaki-san turns out fruitful soon."

Sarutobi watched as the men who had obstructed him the most in his search for Naruto-kun left his office, bowing and smiling.

With this, he had cleared all obstructions, obtained his revenge and even managed to garner more funds in the form of donations.

Not a bad haul, if he did say so. An uncharacteristic smirk spread across his face. Nobody messed with him.

* * *

The Sandaime's next target was the Uchiha clan. This was far trickier than dealing with simple civilians, especially since the Uchiha were one of the more prominent clans in Konoha and he did not wish to alienate the Sharingan wielding clan _too much_.

The plan, though, was extremely in execution. The Uchiha valued their pride above all else, and it was there that the Sandaime struck.

If all went according to plan, the Uchiha Clan Head should be looking for him right about...now

Three sharp raps sounded on the door as his personal secretary opened the door and poked her head in.

"Hokage-sama, the Clan Head of the Uchiha Clan wishes to meet you on what he claims to be urgent matters. He has not set an appointment beforehand though. Should I send him in?"

"Please do, Kotona-san."

His secretary nodded and disappeared from view for a short while before the doors to his office and Uchiha Fugaku strode into his office.

"Good afternoon, Hokage-sama." Fugaku said as he bowed. No matter how enraged he was, the Sarutobi was still the Hokage and as such was accorded the respect to one befitting his station.

"Good afternoon to you too, Fugaku-san. Now, what can I help you with today? My assistant said that you had something very urgent that demanded my attention immediately?"

"Hokage-sama, I would like to know why we are given less time to handle our cases?"

"Ah, that matter. Have a seat would you, Fugaku-san? I imagine it must be quite uncomfortable standing like that." The Sandaime said, hinting that he could see how stiff and thus incensed the Clan was Head despite his expression of bland neutrality.

"No thank you, I am fine like this. Thank you for your offer, Hokage-sama."

"Very well then. Let us cut to the heart of the matter, shall we? The reason why I have reduced the window for the Uchiha Military Police to investigate a missing person's case to four days instead of the initial one week is because of the recent debacle over Naruto-kun."

"If the Uchiha had been allowed to continue investigations for another week by themselves, I am afraid the trail would have gone much colder since it has been established that Naruto-kun is not even in Hi no Kuni. Therefore, to prevent another case like this happening, I have decided that it would be more prudent to let the ANBU take charge of the investigations after the Military Police has done the groundwork."

That should have stung the Uchiha's pride by quite a bit. After all, the Sandaime had just insinuated that the Military Police was incompetent when it came to investigation and all that they were good for was combing the grounds like a hound and then providing the ANBU with information."

The Hokage knew he had hit home when he saw Fugaku draw himself up even more stiffly.

"The incident with Uzumaki-san is an anomaly. All civilians should have been easily located within Konoha by the Military Police and it was only Uzumaki-san's unique circumstances that caused him to be out of our reach."

"Ah yes, there was that misfiling of his case report, wasn't there? I was so sure that the Uchiha clan, being our premier shinobi clan, would have been able to avoid a mistake that a civilian could be excused for." The Hokage said, while he waited for the Clan Head's reply.

What would it be? Would he swallow his pride and admit to having made a mistake, or would he let slip that it had not been an accident, which would be a tacit admission of treachery? Either way, it played into his hands.

"That...was a grievous mistake that shall not be repeated again." The Uchiha eventually forced out. It was evident to the Sandaime how much the admission of weakness pained the Clan Head, and he revelled in it.

"That is why I am taking such actions, Fugaku-san. The Military Police made a mistake and while I am sure that esteemed shinobi like the Uchiha would not commit such an error again, the world we live in is not such a forgiving one. One mistake can cost us much. I hope you can see things from my side, Fugaku-san."

"Yes, of course. The Uchiha shall endeavour to remove this blemish from our honour. Thank you for your time, Hokage-sama." Fugaku said as he bowed and then walked stiffly out of the door.

The Sandaime smiled. It seemed like the Clan Head had received his message very clearly.

'I know what you were trying to do and the next time you try something like this again, you will be dealt with _far more_ severely than this.'

* * *

He had learnt about survival. He had learnt about living. And then he learnt about pride.

* * *

They were hauling their third batch of bags for the day when Naruto caught sight of Takechiyo helping another boy with the bag that he was carrying. Naruto distantly remembered the boy as having dislocated his ankle the day before when he tripped and fell while carrying their packages.

Naruto immediately knew why Takechiyo was helping the boy then. The older boy was always like this. If someone was in pain, he would do everything in his ability to soothe the pain. If someone was extra hungry that day, Takechiyo would sacrifice his meal for that day to ease someone else's hunger. He was what Naruto could never ever be- self-sacrificing.

Unfortunately, if Naruto could see what his unofficial older brother was doing, then the overseer could as well.

"74178! What the fuck do you think you are doing? Get back to your own work right now!"

Takechiyo ignored the slaver and simply continued on his way.

"Ignore me, will you?" The slaver snarled before he sent the end of his whip flying at Takechiyo's face.

"When I answer, you better respond, god damned slave." Once again, the boy ignored the slaver and continued walking forward.

"Do you understand me at all, 74178? Got your mouth glued shut with cum or something?" The bandit sneered before he walked over to the boy and grabbed the small head in his hands, twisting Takechiyo's head sharply to meet his face.

"Think you're some hot shit huh, acting cool like this? Well get this right, you're just a fucking slave. My used toilet paper's too good for you to even sniff, so you better get rid of that dick up your ass and snap to it, understand?"

Takechiyo's only respond was to spit in the bandit's face.

That sent the slaver over the edge as he started to brutalise the boy, snarling curses with spittle spraying out his mouth. The boy raised his hands to defend himself but no matter how much he had been trained, his body simply could not match the strength of an adult.

Eventually, the slaver seemed to have calmed down a little as he stopped his blows, chuckling as he looked over his handiwork. The boy was barely recognisable from the immense swelling on his face along with his broken nose. The vicious lashings from the whip had carved bloody trenches through the boy's flesh, causing him to bleed profusely.

"So, have you had enough yet, little boy?" The bandit taunted as he pulled the boy up by his hair until they were face to face.

"Tell you what, I'm a forgiving man. You get down on your knees now and beg for forgiveness and then bark like a dog and I'll even give you medicine for your wounds. How is it? Good deal, isn't it?"

The bloody phlegm that was left on his face gave him all the answer that he needed as the slaver's eyes darkened.

"So, somebody wants to continue playing huh? Well, I don't mind!"

This time, not an inch of mercy was given and the sound of cracking bones was evident to all the slaves. Despite the punishment being dealt to him though, the boy never uttered a single sound and though his knees buckled many times, he never allowed himself to collapse.

The bandit finally ran out of steam and stalked away, panting heavily while yelling at the rest of the slaves to continue moving.

Despite his numerous injuries, Takechiyo picked up the two bags on the ground and never stopped until they reached their cage at the end of day whereupon he immediately collapsed onto the ground.

* * *

Naruto was immediately beside the older boy as he pulled out a water bottle that was filled to the brim and carefully used it to clean Takechiyo's wounds while he manoeuvred the boy into a more comfortable position.

"Naruto-kun, where did you get that?" Yuffie gasped as she sat down on the other side of Takechiyo, tearing a piece of bread into smaller pieces so that it would be easier for the older boy to swallow it.

"Stole it." Naruto muttered as he checked Takechiyo for internal injuries, having cleaned up the superficial wounds to the best of the ability.

Konoha's streets and back alleys were very educational for Naruto in his numerous adventures. After all, if one wanted to steal in a village that was watched over by shinobi, one had better be _damn good_. He had picked up his thieving abilities simply watching how the thieves work. It was convenient sometimes how _everyone_ just ignored him no matter where he was.

It puzzled him to no end why everyone else healed so slowly. Did they actually like to feel pain? They should just make the pain go away like he always did when he focused. As his fingers moved over an unnatural protrusion, Naruto grimaced. Dislocations were horrible to have and it took a long time for even him to have them heal naturally. Luckily, he had more than enough experience in setting bones from his experiences in the previous cage.

"Sorry, gonna hurt." Naruto warned as he began the unenviable task of resetting the multiple dislocated bones that the older boy. Naruto was thankful though that there did not seem to be any broken bones. That would have made things much more complicated.

When Naruto was finally done repairing as much damage as he could, he began his interrogation.

"Why'd you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Be an idiot."

"Huh?" Takechiyo was very confused now.

"No pain if you just answer and be good. Why'd you be so stupid?"

Takechiyo understood what Naruto was talking about now.

"Because I will never submit to them. I told you before about how they want to dehumanise us by using numbers. If I answer to them, then I am allowing them to win. I am accepting my identity as a number and I will not do that!"

Naruto could let that slide, even if it still did not make much sense to him.

"Then when overseer stopped. Why not listen?"

"Because of pride and honour."

Naruto scoffed at this. "Can you eat pride and honour?"

"It is not about tangible gains, Naruto. Even if one is alive, one does not truly live if he has no pride or honour. That is what makes us human.

Our honour is what keeps us in line and makes sure that we do the right thing, for one who lives without honour and restraint is one who lives like a beast, and a beast is meant to be put down.

Our pride in ourselves is what drives us to greater heights, so that civilisation as a whole can improve.

By wanting me to kneel in front of him, that bandit was trying to assert his dominance and thus superiority over me and I will not accept that. I will not accept that that scum is in anyway better than me, no matter what happens to me. I am Matsudaira Takechiyo and I will not bend knee before that pathetic excuse for a human!"

"You are Matsudaira Takechiyo and you are a boy with more bruises than brain cells." Naruto snorted as he rolled over and prepared to sleep.

He lay awake for a long time though as he pondered the concept of pride and honour in the dark cage that he was in.

* * *

He learnt about dreams.

* * *

The three of them were lying down on the ground close together, with Takechiyo in the centre of the group.

Naruto was focusing on moving his power around in his body as they chatted about idle things. While he no longer needed to fight now, Naruto's sense of paranoia had never faded after his transfer. In fact, his paranoia had only increased. After all, it had been too long since anything truly horrible to him and that just felt did not fit the natural order of the universe.

Yuffie was fiddling with the hairpin that her mother had given her shortly before she had been kidnapped by the slavers. Seeing as it was only the memento she had of her previous life, it was the most precious object she had in her possession and she kept it with her all the time.

That was when Takechiyo started a topic that had never been broached before.

"Do you guys have dreams?" the leader of their ragtag group asked.

"Yep. Every night. Hate them like hell." Naruto grunted before he shifted his head to look at the older boy.

"You want them? I'll give them to you for free."

That was when Yuffie chimed in. "I can give you my dreams too. They're quite nice. I think you'd have fun playing with Usagi-san."

Both boys looked at each other with the same expression on their face. They were boys, and boys did not play not with rabbits. Why did Yuffie always fail to grasp that concept?

"Uhh thank you, Yuffie-chan but I'm not talking about those dreams."

Naruto arched an eyebrow. "What other dreams are there?" Oh yes, he was so damn badass with that eyebrow raise and he just knew it!

"They are more like things that you want to do in the future; goals for you to aim for."

"Huh." Naruto grunted. Well, he knew for sure what he wanted to do and continue to do for as long as he could.

"Breathe. Sounds good."

Takechiyo could not help but face palm. He understood that the blond boy had gone through a lot but would it kill him to have a spark of a man's romance in his heart? Just wanting to keep living was so...bland.

"I want to see the ocean!" Yuffie chimed in. Even though Cha no Kuni had many coastal areas, she had been raised a distant away from the coastlines and had never seen the ocean before. Takechiyo's descriptions of the ocean had sent her imagination wild thinking about what it would look like.

Takechiyo chuckled as he patted the girl's head. "That's a good dream. Come on, Naruto, give me something better."

"What's the point?" Naruto grunted as he crossed his arms. "We're stuck here anyway."

"For now." Takechiyo answered. "We're only stuck here for now but someday, I swear that we will be free. I don't know how long it will take but we _will_ be free and when that time comes, it'll be good to have something to aim for, no?"

"Well, what's _your_ dream then?" Naruto asked. Although he acted grumpy and uninterested, Naruto's curiosity could not help but be piqued by what Takechiyo's goals for the future were.

"I want to unite the land. I want to bring everyone together and have everyone work together. Then, there will be no more fighting amongst all the countries. Everyone will dedicate their time and energy to fighting off evil. There will be no more slaves, no more murders. No more us. I want to create a Utopia." Takechiyo declared as he raised his hands to the sky as though he could see and reach the world that he was talking about above him.

Naruto could not help but scoff. "No wonder it's called a dream. Happens only when you sleep, Takechiyo."

"Hey!" the older boy exclaimed. He knew that his dream was one of the most impossible and outlandish dreams possible but he truly did want to accomplish it.

"But since mine is not good enough I'll steal yours." Naruto said as he raised his hand up too. "When you start to build your perfect world, I'll be there beside you, every step of the way."

Their clenched fists opened and they grasped each other's hands in mid-air, a gesture of their mutual promise.

* * *

Naruto learnt about protecting others.

* * *

"Hey Yuffie-chan, are you alright?" Takechiyo asked when they woke up for the morning. The normally chipper girl was extremely subdued that day and she was perspiring greatly even though they had not started work yet.

"I'm okay." Yuffie said as she smiled weakly. "I think my part of the bread was bad, that's all."

"If you say so..." Takechiyo said doubtfully.

"Really, I'm okay. You need to go first."

Takechiyo was normally the first one to lead the procession so that he would set the pace for the rest of the slaves. After all, someone else might set the pace too quickly, which would cause the weaker kids to be unable to keep up and thus be punished. On the other hand, if someone else set the pace too slow for the slaver's liking, that person would be punished as well.

Takechiyo did not mind that, as he was more than willing to take a few lashings if it meant that others were spared the suffering. However, it was apparent to everyone that while Takechiyo cared for all the slaves in the cage, he doted on Yuffie the most.

Upon Yuffie's further urging, Takechiyo reluctantly set off, but not before looking backwards and sending Naruto a significant glance. He knew that despite Naruto's gruff exterior, the only person in the cage that cared more about Yuffie than himself was the blond child. Naruto's quick nod caused Takechiyo to let out a sigh of relief as he jogged to the front of the line.

Naruto took his own sweet time to get up, timing it such that he lined up right behind Yuffie. The girl was sweet and easily contented, but that did not mean that she was stupid. She turned around to stare at Naruto while the younger boy simply grinned widely at her, unrepentant even though he had been caught.

Unable to do anything, Yuffie simply huffed in frustration as she turned around, though she could not help the small smile that crept onto to her face. Although being coddled like this annoyed her sometimes, she appreciated what the boys did for her and gave her a small measure of happiness in this pit of misery.

As she marched to the lifts though, she felt far more tired than she had ever been, even though she had not exerted any strength yet. More than once, she wobbled on her feet and would have fallen if she had not caught herself in time. After all, if she fell, she knew that Naruto would immediately stop the line to catch her and be whipped for that. She definitely did not wish for anyone to suffer on her behalf.

By the time they had arrived at the lifts, Yuffie was on the brink of collapse. She pressed on though, and smiled gamely at her partner as both girls started to drag the bag they were sharing to their location, all the while aware of how Naruto was dogging her every step even though he would normally never allow himself to walk as slowly as a girl.

She began to feel lightheaded the further they marched. In fact, it was beginning to feel as though her body was becoming lighter. Maybe she had sweated out the bad food in her stomach and that was why she now felt so light in contrast to the heaviness she had felt earlier? She felt so light that she could swear she was flying.

No, wait.

She was not flying. She was falling! Yuffie desperately tried to correct her balance but her body simply refused to obey her orders. She let out a slight cry of pain as her body collided against the hard, unforgiving ground.

"Oi! Get up now!" the slaver ordered as he cocked his arm back for the swing. Yuffie tried to push her body but she was simply too late. She could only lie there on the ground as the whip rapidly approached her. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the incoming whipping.

The sound of leather impacting against flesh sounded out but surprisingly, Yuffie felt no pain. She opened her eyes and could not help but gasp when she saw Naruto standing in front of her as he _growled_ at the slaver.

Naruto had absolutely no idea what he was doing. It went against all of the instincts drilled into him ever since he had become a slave.

When other slaves were whipped, Naruto simply continued his work and was thankful that it was not him. When he saw Yuffie about to be whipped though, his body simply moved on its own as he sprinted to stand in front of the girl, taking the blow for her.

"Get out of the way, boy. I'll give you one chance." The slaver said as he readied his arm. He recognised that blond boy and while he was confident that he could put down one measly kid, the rumours of what he was capable of stayed his hand.

"I'll carry the bag for her. You get your work done, she gets to rest, I get to help. Everybody's happy." Naruto replied tersely as he pumped the power through his body as quickly as he could.

"No deal kid, now move or I whip both you and her so hard that you'll wish you were dead."

"**Oh really?"** Naruto said.

Or at least he thought he had said it normally. What emerged was a mix between a snarl and a growl. Naruto crouched down, ready to launch himself at the slaver if necessary as he bared his teeth at the slaver.

A part of him gibbered at the back of his mind, telling him to stop this nonsense before he got injured or worse, _killed_ but for some reason, he was able to ignore it. For some reason, the threat of death was not sufficient to move him. For some reason, Yuffie's well-being was more important to him than his own was.

It did not make sense to him but it did not need to because even though he was not dying, he felt stronger than he ever did, including when he was in Level 2. Naruto stood his ground and stared at the bandit, daring the adult to make a move.

The bandit, on the other hand, could sense that something was _wrong_ with the blond slave and it was not just his attitude either. There was something unnatural about the kid that he did not want to mess around with but he could not simply back down either.

"What about the girl then? She doesn't look like she can even crawl, let alone walk and I'm not letting her hold up the entire line." The bandit sneered.

"**I'll carry her."**Was Naruto's reply.

With no reply to that, the bandit stalked down the line.

He had won? Naruto had no idea how, but he had somehow won that conflict. But that was the priority here. They still needed to get through the day before they could tell what was wrong with Yuffie. Hopefully Takechiyo knew something about this like he seemed to know about everything.

Kneeling down, he moved Yuffie onto his back with the other girl's help and then started hauling the two bags to their destination. With the power boost he had received, this was nothing much to him. Naruto only hoped that it would last long for him to last through the day.

* * *

Amazingly enough, the power boost remained all the way until they were back at the cage. Naruto placed Yuffie down on the ground as gently as he could before he collapsed much less gracefully on the ground.

Naruto squeezed his eyes shut as the after-effects of using the power for so long struck at him. He bit his lip to keep himself from letting out any hint that he was suffering. It felt like liquid fire was flowing through his body instead of blood. He hurt so much all because he had chosen to prioritise another person over his own well-being. Somehow, he did not mind.

"Naruto, are you alright?" Takechiyo asked, his face pale. He had never seen the blond child display any signs of weakness no matter how much he went through but here he was now, barely holding in his screams of pain. What Naruto was going through now must be pain that was unimaginable.

"Check on Yuffie." Naruto grunted. "She got worse over the day."

The little girl had never stopped perspiring throughout the day even though she had started shivering after the second batch. That worried Naruto more than anything, because one shivered when one was cold but if one was cold, one did not perspire. It did not make sense to Naruto and he hated the feeling of having yet another thing happen that he could not do anything about. He hated being helpless.

"She has a fever." Takechiyo finally declared after some time.

A fever? Naruto distantly remembered hearing that word from his time in the orphanage. Some other kids had gotten a fever. Not knowing what it was, Naruto had pouted that the other kids had gotten something that he had not until the matron had told him that it was something bad that made one feel very bad.

"How do we help her?"

"We need medicine for a fever but only the bandits have medicine here and there is no way they'll give her any unless she is close to dying and by then it might be too late. Plus, a high fever might damage the brain permanently that cannot be cured by any medicine in anyway."

Takechiyo sighed despondently as he clutched his head. "I don't know what to do."

The bandits had medicine? Well, things were not hopeless yet then, Naruto concluded as multiple plans ran through his head. But first...

"Feed her." Naruto said as he pulled out another bottle of water that he had nicked earlier.

Yuffie found it too hard to chew the solid block of rock that was their dinner so Naruto moistened the bread with the water he had stolen, making it easier for Yuffie to swallow her meal.

When all of them were done with their meagre meals, Naruto sidled up next to the girl.

"Hey Yuffie, can you lend me your hairpin? I promise you I will return it to you later."

"Of course, Onii-san, I trust you." Yuffie replied as she smiled up at Naruto.

"I'm Naruto, you know, not Takechiyo." Naruto replied as he pocketed Yuffie's hairpin.

"I know, but you look more like an Onii-san than an otouto since you protected me." Yuffie then looked up at Naruto with large, doleful eyes. "Is that not okay?"

There was no conceivable way Naruto could say no to that, especially when the girl was not feeling well.

"Fine. I'll be your Onii-san. Now be quiet and go sleep." Naruto grumbled.

"Hai, Onii-san!" Yuffie said as she closed her eyes.

When Naruto was sure that that everyone else other than Takechiyo and him were asleep, he put his fingers to his lips, indicating for the older boy to be quiet while he gestured with the other hand for Takechiyo to go to the gates of the cage.

"Takechiyo, you know what the medicine looks like, right?" Naruto whispered.

The older boy nodded in response.

"Okay, good. I'm going to get us out of the cage and then we're going to go and look for the medicine. Okay?"

Takechiyo stared at the blond child for many long moments, his mouth opening and closing as he thought about something that he wanted to say, and then aborted it. Finally, his face hardened into a determined look as he nodded his head, earning a grin from Naruto.

The Matsudaira scion watched in awe as Naruto inserted the hairpin into the lock of the cage and after some deft movements with his fingers, unlocked the door of the cage, causing it to swing outwards.

"Wha-how-"

"Learnt it from where I was" Naruto said as he crept out of the cage, keeping a lookout in case one of the bandits decided to pass by where they were. Seeing that they were clear, Naruto motioned for Takechiyo to exit before he closed the gate behind them, making it appears as though the cage was still locked.

The two of them sneaked through the tunnels, scouring every nook and cranny for the medicine that they needed, occasionally ducking into unlit corners to avoid being seen by passing bandits. Finally, Takechiyo stumbled upon what he needed in a bag that was left unattended.

"Jackpot!" he gasped as he cradled the precious medicine to his chest.

"Jackpot? Is that the name of the medicine we're looking for?" Naruto asked as he examined the medicine that Takechiyo was holding. "It doesn't look like any kind of pot I've seen before though."

"No, it's not the name of the medicine. Jackpot is just something you say when something happens that is good for you."

"Huh? Why not just say yay? Actually, why is it jackpot? Why not tompot, harrypot, queenpot or kingpot?"

"It's just like that!" Takechiyo said, flushing as he hurriedly stood and started to return to the cage. Naruto did not let up though.

Stubborn was as good as his first name. Middle name was not good enough.

"But _why_ do you use it? There are so many other words to use." Naruto pestered Takechiyo when they were back in the cage.

"Because I find it cool, okay?" Takechiyo finally exclaimed, blushing furiously while Naruto snickered. Takechiyo swore he was never going to use that word ever again in his life.

* * *

The next day, when Yuffie was fully recovered and thanking her two Onii-sans repeatedly, Takechiyo could not help but mull over Naruto's incredible ability in all things related to stealth. As he sat there thinking, a plan started to form in his head as he started to smile widely.

"Hey guys, how do you feel about escaping from this place?"

* * *

Naruto learnt about hope.

* * *

The first thing that they did in preparation for their eventual escape was to sneak out of the cage after everyone was asleep to scout out the tunnels that they were in. Takechiyo had of course objected to leaving all the other slaves out of the loop and the escape but Naruto had put his foot down.

In his opinion, twenty children trying to escape was just impossible while three small children trying to escape actually had a chance of succeeding. Besides, once they were free, they could always lead Takechiyo's family back here to wipe out the bandits and free _all_ the slaves, not just the ones in their cage. The older boy had reluctantly conceded that point.

In their explorations, they, or rather, Naruto, stole several things that would be necessary for their escape. He nicked some pieces of paper along with a pen that they used to draw a map of the tunnels that they explored. They also found spare keys to the slave cages that Naruto quickly grabbed as well.

All of these were stored in a small hole in a hidden alcove that they had found. Non-perishable food was also stored in their little treasure hole.

As time passed, Naruto, unbeknownst to himself, turned five.

Their hidden storage had more and more things added to it until one day, the map and the plan was complete. They were ready to attempt their escape.

* * *

They crept through the tunnels, all of their hearts hammering wildly in their chests at the thought that this would be the last time that they had to see these tunnels. Their experience in sneaking through the tunnels allowed them to easily reach the first checkpoint, which was the slave cage number three.

They paused near it as they checked to make sure the coast was clear, before Takechiyo and Yuffie hurried ahead to their hidden alcove. Once Naruto was sure that his family was safe, he unlocked the slave cage and crept in, shaking one of the older boys awake.

The slave jerked away, mouth opening to shout out but Naruto had pre-empted and covered the boy's mouth with one hand while he chopped at the boy's throat with the other, cutting off the shout.

"I have the keys for all the slave cages. Open them up, and we can all escape together." Naruto whispered.

"Why don't I just escape alone, huh?" The boy whispered back after he had gotten his breath back.

"Because one slave is easily caught. If you have many slaves running out together, they might miss you."

The older boy immediately saw the sense of what Naruto was saying and nodded his head, signalling his assent to his role. Naruto wordlessly passed the spare keys over to the boy and snuck away, making sure to keep to the shadows so that no one could see where he was going.

He met Takechiyo and Yuffie in the hidden alcove where they waited with bated breath. This was the riskiest part of their plan. If things did not happen as they had predicted, then they were screwed.

They strained their ears and soon heard the sounds of multiple children cheering and grinned at each other. The second part of the plan was completed.

The freed slaves quickly sprinted off in different directions, navigating through the pathways that they were most familiar with. Some of the bandits that were closer to the slave cages moved to investigate the ruckus and promptly raised the alarm when they discovered that the slaves were escaping.

"The slaves are escaping!"

Heavy footsteps thumped on the ground as multiple bandits rushed into the slave pens from above, passing by the three children while they prayed desperately that no bandit would manage to find them where they were.

Miraculously, they were never found.

Once they felt it was safe to venture out, the trio grabbed the things they had pilfered and sprinted up the tunnels with all their might. No matter how much their lungs burnt or how much their muscles scream in protest, the children never stopped. Incredibly, they never encountered a bandit. It seemed like their plan to lure the bandits into the slave pens and the other tunnels where the slaves had escaped to was a success.

They lost count of how long they sprinted for but they were eventually rewarded for it for in the distance, they could see a speck of what must be natural sunlight shining into the cave tunnels.

Suddenly, all their exhaustion washed away from them as they laid eyes upon that dot of light. Hope swelled within their chests. Their breath came easier and their feet became lighter at the sight of freedom. Freedom was in their grasp!

And then the world crumbled around them.

The ground shook so hard that they were flung to the ground.

"What is going on?" Naruto shouted out as he rolled to the side to avoid being impaled by a sharp rock.

"I don't know!" Takechiyo shouted back as he too tried to scramble to safety. "I think it's an earthquake!"

Just as the children began to regain their balance, a second, and then a third tremor struck the cave. Naruto narrowly avoided being crushed by a rock, but the rough surface of the rock managed to graze his right arm, shaving off much of the skin and flesh on his arm.

"Naruto Onii-san!" Yuffie cried out in distress as she saw the blond boy bleed. Heedless of her own safety, she rushed towards Naruto.

"No, get back!" Naruto screamed but he was too late. He watched, horrified, as a boulder as large as three grown men dropped on where Yuffie had been standing.

"Yuffie-chan!" both screams shouted out as they rushed forward, only for even more rocks to drop down on her location.

The tremors eventually stopped and the boys tried to move away the multiple rocks that had dropped onto Yuffie but they were simply too heavy.

Naruto dug deep into himself and pulled out far more of his power than he had ever commanded but it was not enough. The rocks were simply too large. He was not giving up though. If he couldn't lift them up then he would break them!

Naruto punched the first rock with all his might but only succeeded in crushing his own fingers. They healed in mere seconds though and Naruto swung again. And again. And again. Takechiyo had taken to picking up rocks from the ground and using them to pound at the rock. Both boys knew deep in their hearts that the sweet little girl was mostly crushed beyond recognition but they refused to give up. A manic force drove them on as they refused to accept the fact that Yuffie had died.

"Man, the explosives sure did a number on this cave huh."

"You can say that again. Boss, where did you get them from?"

"That's for me to know and for you maggots to find out!"

Naruto and Takechiyo turned their heads to see many adults walking down the tunnels while they laughed at the latest comment made.

"Oh? What's this? The welcoming party? So, keep 'em or kill 'em, Boss?"

"Just kill them. Plenty more inside if we want to get some fresh blood."

The two boys felt despair in their very souls. The slavers were behind them, and these new adults in front of them wanted to kill them. There was no way they could escape this death trap. There were too many of the new adults in front of them and all of them were armed to the teeth. They were doomed.

Takechiyo suddenly thought of something that he had caught. Explosives?

"Did you cause this cave-in?"

"Sure did!" one of the adults laughed. "Awesome explosion wasn't it? Wait, I don't need to tell you that. You were right in the middle of it!"

Takechiyo saw red. The men in front of him were the ones who had caused the cave-in. They were the ones who had foiled their escape but more than that, they were the ones who had killed Yuffie. Their numbers and strength did not matter to him. He would kill them if it was the last thing that he did.

With a roar of defiance, Takechiyo charged towards the men, causing them to laugh at the sight of a nine-year old attacking a group of adults head on.

One of the men swiped casually at Takechiyo, only for the boy to casually duck under the careless swing and deliver a chop to the man's wrist, causing him to drop the sword.

Takechiyo quickly picked the sword up. It was far larger than he was used to, but it was better than nothing right now. Without a single moment of hesitation, Takechiyo plunged the sword into the heart of its previous owner, killing the man immediately.

The mocking laughter stopped as all the gathered men witnessed the death of one of their own. All of them drew their weapons as they advanced upon the lone boy silently and then suddenly attacked in tandem.

Takechiyo could tell immediately that these men were not bandits. They had too much skill and discipline to be common bandits. Mercenaries then? What were mercenaries doing here though?

Any momentum that Takechiyo could have had after killing the first man was lost as the men surrounded him. It was all he could do to defend himself.

He deflected a blade to the side and stepped to the left to avoid an overhead slash from above. A quick duck prevented him from decapitated. As he rose back to his full, Takechiyo thrust his sword up, hoping to use the speed and power gained from rising to power through any guard that the mercenary would put up.

Unfortunately, his target stepped back instead of blocking and batted Takechiyo's purloined sword to the side, leaving the boy unable to defend himself from the incoming attack.

The gleaming blade descended on him from his left and Takechiyo knew he was too off balance to dodge the attack. He was a Matsudaira though and he would flinch away from death. He kept his eyes opened as the blade that spelt his doom approached him before it suddenly disappeared as Naruto cannoned into his attacker.

Takechiyo noted that Naruto seemed more...feral. More savage. But that did not matter. He knew that the both of them could not possibly hope to survive but with Naruto at his side, hopefully they would bring down as many of the bastards as possible.

Takechiyo's plans for a defensive battle were spoilt though when Naruto barrelled into another mercenary. Thankfully, the mercenaries were caught off guard by the speed that Naruto displayed and were unable to react in time. The child samurai quickly took advantage to land as many blows as he could in the window that Naruto had created with his reckless charge.

That was when a voice sounded out.

"Don't kill them. They're interesting."

Takechiyo could not help but grin at this. This would only make it easier for Naruto and himself. These mercenaries would soon regret their hubris!

A few minutes later and Takechiyo soon realised that the mercenaries had not overestimated themselves. Rather, it was Takechiyo that had overestimated his own abilities.

Other than the first mercenary that he had killed with a surprise attack, he had been able to land only glancing blows on the mercenaries while they whittled away at the two children. The older boy was covered in multiple injuries that while non-fatal, drained much of his blood and thus his energy from him. Even Naruto who seemed to never run out of energy was slumped over in exhaustion now.

Takechiyo moved forward to support Naruto in another of his berserker charges but his knee buckled under him. In no time at all, he found himself pinned to the ground by no less than three mercenaries. The former slave looked up to see Naruto in the same situation that he was in.

"Not bad at all for two little runts." One mercenary said. Takechiyo recognised him as the leader and burnt the image of him into his mind. He took note of the shoulder length and memorised the different earrings that the man wore. The cruel and slanted eyes were unforgettable, as was the hook nose that sprouted above the cruel smirk that the man wore.

He would remember that face, along with the black leather armour that he wore and if he managed to escape alive from this, he would hunt down this man one day and deliver the retribution that he deserved.

Naruto, on the other hand, had never stopped struggling ever since he had been pinned down. In fact, his struggles had only intensified as this position broke back unwanted memories of how he had been held helpless while bandits tortured his family.

He wished he could strike that bald man that was the main person pinning Takechiyo down. He would tear his face apart and scatter his intestines across these tunnels. Naruto roared as he gained a sudden boost of strength that allowed him to throw the men pinning him down off him.

Even though he was too far away from the bald man to hit him, Naruto slashed at the air instinctively and that was when things turned surreal. A red hand shot out from his own hand and, mimicking Naruto's actions, slashed at the man's head.

The bald man reared back, avoiding decapitation but was unable to prevent the claws from raking across his face. He howled in agony as the blood and his _eye_ boiled from contact with the red claw. The boy that he was pinning down took advantage of his pain to try to escape.

Enraged and in pain, the bald man reacted instinctually and stabbed his sword down.

The howl of rage and pain from the blond boy was deafening.

* * *

Naruto learnt of revenge.

* * *

**A/N: First of all, I wish to say that I am really pleased with my chapter title choice, as it is very symbolic of what happens in this chapter.**

**Also, I hope that my portrayal of the Sandaime is to your liking. Personally, I always detested how many other fanfics had their Sandaime as either a useless, bumbling fool or a useless bumbling fool that turned into a tyrant over night.**

**My image of him is a master in everything he does, including manipulation and politics. I believe he is as capable, if not more in these matters as anyone else.**

**Finally, please do review!**


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